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Temporary
Medicare Ambulance Relief
By Tristan Nort
AAA Vice President of Government Affairs
Washington,
DC —
CALL
TO ACTION
Write
Your Members of Congress
Please write
your Members of Congress as soon as possible to ask for their
support of temporary Medicare relief for ambulance service
providers. Congress is currently finalizing a Budget
Reconciliation Bill that could ultimately include modest targeted
Medicare provider relief. While no Medicare provisions were
included in the House Bill (H.R. 4241) and limited relief in the
Senate Bill (S. 1932), there is a small window of opportunity
should conferees agree to address Medicare provisions to
potentially include temporary ambulance relief in the final Budget
Reconciliation Bill. The conference committee will begin
officially when the House and Senate return on December 5 and
December 12, respectively, from the Thanksgiving Day Recess.
It’s
Easy Using the AAA Online Letter Writing Tool
To send letters
on temporary Medicare ambulance relief to your Members of Congress
using the AAA online letter writing tool, simply click on this
link: http://capwiz.com/the-aaa/home/.
You can also access the tool through the AAA website at www.the-aaa.org
by clicking on “Write to Congress” in the “On Capitol
Hill” box.
Details
of the Temporary Medicare Ambulance Relief Package
As reported in
the recent membership letter by AAA President Bob Garner, the AAA
Board of Directors adopted the provisions of the temporary
Medicare ambulance relief package at a meeting in late September.
Since then, the AAA has presented the package to Members of
Congress and staff who are involved with the Budget Reconciliation
Bill. While it will be an uphill battle, we have a strong
case for the need for additional Medicare reimbursement. The
temporary Medicare relief proposed in the AAA package is a
reasonable approach to ensuring that ambulance service providers
have the necessary resources until a long-term fix is developed.
The specifics
of the package are as follows:
1a.
Freeze Regional Fee Schedule Blend at 2005 Rate: (60%
regional/40% national fee schedule). Please
note that “1a” is bundled with “1b” and the two items are
thus one provision.
1b.
Increase Reimbursement Rate for Non-regional Fee Schedule
Providers: Increase, based on the same dollar amount for the
regional freeze, the base rate for providers in states that do not
benefit from regional fee schedule.
- Extend
Q-Codes: Freeze
Q-Code reimbursement for BLS services provided in an ALS
vehicle at the 2005 rate (80% BLS rate/20% ALS rate).
- Increase
Reimbursement to Rural Providers: Increase rate by
4.9 – 5.7 percent for rural providers that do not qualify
for the “super rural bonus”.
- Across
the Board Increase for All Providers: Increase rates
by 1% for all ambulance service providers regardless of region
or service area.
If you have any
questions regarding contacting your Members of Congress or the
package, please contact me at tnorth@the-aaa.org
or 1-800-523-4447. Please feel free to forward this Call
To Action to members of your state ambulance
association and please write your Members of Congress by no later
than December 5.
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