Advocacy

STS Washington, DC Fly-In: April 16-17

On April 16-17, STS leaders traveled to Washington, D.C., to speak with Congressional leaders in advance of the anticipated release of a final National Coverage Determination (NCD) for transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) technology. This was the first of four Fly-Ins planned for 2012. These events allow the Society to respond more nimbly to pressing policy issues through face-to-face meetings in Washington when they are needed the most, while committing surgeon leaders to fewer days away from their practice obligations.

As a part of this year’s inaugural STS Fly-In, participants received a policy briefing from STS staff the evening prior to visiting Capitol Hill. In all, nine STS leaders, accompanied by STS Government Relations staff, met with key members of Congressional Committees with jurisdiction over the issues important to the Society. During these meetings, the Society demonstrated strong support for CMS’s Coverage with Evidence Development (CED) policy, an evolving method of providing access to new drugs and devices while generating the evidence necessary to determine whether unconditional coverage is warranted. The CED relies on early stakeholder buy-in and collaboration, and adaptable research methodologies that can respond to a changing evidentiary and technology landscape. STS leaders also highlighted recent collaboration among STS, ACC, FDA, CMS, and industry stakeholders to create the STS/ACC TVT Registry as an example of how registries can be used to facilitate the CED process.

Fly-In attendees also briefed Congressional leaders on:
• Ways to replace the unsustainable Medicare physician payment formula; and
• Plans to restore the utility of data contained in the Social Security Death Master File.

Keep an eye out for information on our next STS Fly-In and help the Society lead the way on issues important to the specialty. For more information, please contact the STS Government Relations staff at (202) 787-1230 or advocacy@sts.org.

SGR Update:

On Feb. 17, Congress agreed to delay cuts to physicians’ Medicare payments for 10 months as part of a proposal that includes extending certain unemployment benefits and payroll tax exemptions. (Congress took action in late December 2011 to avert a 27 percent reduction in physicians’ Medicare payments for two months; this temporary patch would have expired Feb. 29.)

This “SGR patch” utilizes savings gained by cutting Medicare bad debt payments and clinical lab payments, rebasing Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital payments, and reducing the public health prevention fund created under the Affordable Care Act to freeze physician payments for 10 months. The deal also includes Medicare “extenders” that come up for periodic renewal; these include outpatient therapy caps, ambulance add-on payments, physician payment geographic adjustments, and outpatient hospital hold harmless payments, among others.

STS continues to advocate for a permanent SGR repeal and a new physician payment model that will:

  • Allow physicians to share the savings generated by their quality improvement efforts;
  • Mandate and incentivize the development and utilization of clinical data registries;
  • Require CMS and other payers to make administrative (cost) data available to registries for use in their analyses;
  • Address barriers imposed by federal and state privacy regulations; and
  • Utilize registries and other resources to generate comparative effectiveness research and post-market surveillance of drugs and medical devices.

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