Legislative Action Needed

This is from an e-mail I received from the APTA today... help out... even if you are not a PT and can understand where we are coming from please contact your legislator... it makes a difference (if you do not know how to contact your legislator please send me a message and I will try to help you out)

DON’T LET PHYSICAL THERAPY BE CAPPED AND CUT –

CONTACT CONGRESS NOW

Physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, and the patients we treat must tell their Members of Congress to act now on the Medicare therapy cap and proposed fee schedule cuts! If Congress doesn’t take action, beneficiaries will lose the exceptions process that protects them from the Medicare therapy cap and PTs will face a nearly 10% cut in payments starting January 1, 2008.

Currently, leaders of House and Senate health committees are discussing options to resolve the impasse on legislation to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The House passed bill includes important Medicare provisions and expands children’s health coverage while the Senate version does not have any Medicare provisions. The President has also indicated that he will veto either bill if it arrives on his desk. Passage of health care legislation this year is clearly uncertain.

It is imperative to communicate now with your Members of Congress to cosponsor HR 748/S 450 to repeal the Medicare therapy cap and to pass legislation to prevent the 9.9% cuts in the 2008 Medicare physician fee schedule. Please contact your Members of Congress and their staff about the importance of physical therapy to your Medicare patients and the harmful results if a “hard” therapy cap is reinstituted and payments are cut in 2008.

What You Can Do

It is important that you send a strong message to your Members of Congress to request that they become cosponsors to repeal the therapy cap once and for all. Please contact your Members of Congress and ask them to cosponsor HR 748/S 450 and support legislation to prevent the 9.9% cuts in the 2008 physician fee schedule. You can contact your Members of Congress by calling 202/224-3121 or by utilizing APTA’s Legislative Action Center to Ask Congress to Repeal the Therapy Cap & Prevent Fee Schedule Cuts. You can write a letter or e-mail to your Members of Congress regarding this important issue.

In your call or letter to your Members of Congress, include specific examples of your patients that will be affected if the therapy cap is imposed again. Also, have your patients contact their legislators. Provide them with a letter they can sign and you can mail or have them access APTA’s Patient Action Center on the therapy cap . If you have any questions please contact APTA at 1/800-999-2782, ext. 8533.