Urge Your U.S. Representative to Cosponsor "GPCI Justice" Bill!
Senator Dianne Feinstein and Congressman Sam Farr will very soon be introducing CMA-sponsored Medicare geographic practice cost index (GPCI) legislation, entitled “GPCI Justice.” The bill would address the outdated Medicare geographic physician payment localities. Physicians are urged to contact their members of Congress ASAP and ask them to be an original cosponsor of the bill before it is introduced.
“GPCI Justice” updates the California localities into metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) and holds all counties that might experience cuts harmless from a payment reduction. In essence, it establishes a permanent California payment floor.
A sample message that physicians can send to their members of Congress is at the bottom of this email. The message provides a brief summary of the problem and the provisions in the bill.
The attached charts show the impact of the bill by California County. The first chart is the one I am sharing with Congressional staff because it is less confusing. It is described in the Congressional message below. The second chart is for your information. The Farr Bill column labeled “changes to baseline” shows the impact of the bill by county. The last column shows the impact of moving to MSAs without the hold harmless that is in the bill. Please be clear that the Feinstein/Farr bill holds all California counties harmless from payment cuts permanently!
We are using the MSA iterative methodology outlined by Acumen in their recent report to CMS. This methodology transitions counties in California to their Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Congress, MedPAC, GAO and Acumen are all strongly favoring the MSA locality configuration because 1) the gpci data is MSA driven and therefore, the payment rates are more accurate; 2) the hospitals are paid by Medicare according to MSAs; and 3) Congress is moving to eliminate the Medicare Part A and Part B silos so that physicians can reap some of the hospital savings. Part of that effort requires physicians and hospitals to share the same geographic payment regions.
Congressman Pete Stark and Congressman Henry Waxman have agreed to include this legislation in their health reform packages; however, we need every California representative from the impacted counties to cosponsor the bill to show strong California support to chairmen Stark and Waxman.