A message from ACS Dvision of Advocacy and Health Policy

ACS Leaders

Informal Sunday email from the ACS Washington Office …. Things are not looking good….. Bottom line, in the past 24 hours, the odds of the 27.4% cut going into effect on January 1^st appear to be increasing.  Below is a quick summary of where things stand.

First, earlier this past week, the House passed legislation (almost all Republicans voted in favor and almost all Democrats opposed) that would stop the 27.4 percent cut for two years.  It would create a 37% cut and $370 billion debt in 2014.  The opposition was about how the bill was paid for.

Yesterday (Saturday) morning, the Senate passed legislation that would stop the 27.4 percent cut for 2 months. The legislation also extends the payroll tax holiday and unemployment insurance for 2 months.

The problem in getting a longer fix is that Republicans and Democrats can't agree on how to pay for a bill that would have stopped the cut for longer.

The ACS continues to not support or oppose these short term deals -- they make the problem much worse on many levels.  The ACS continues to urge Congress to fully fix the SGR.

In the past 24 hours, it has become clear that the House Republicans will not accept the Senate deal that was passed yesterday. It is unclear at this point as to whether the House will attempt to modify the Senate bill or push for a conference committee with the Senate.  The problem is that the Senate has adjourned and is not scheduled back until Jan 24th.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s spokesperson has said Senator Reid has no plans to bring the Senate back to Washington.

In my humble opinion, the blame seems to be equally divided between Republicans and Democrats.

I will stay in touch and at some point when things become clearer, there will be an email sent to all Fellows from Drs. Richardson, Numann, Warshaw and Hoyt.

Any questions, let me know

Christian

Christian Shalgian

Director

Division of Advocacy and Health Policy

American College of Surgeons

20 F St, NW Suite 1000

Washington, DC 20001

Email:  cshalgian@facs.org

Phone:  202-672-1504