Annals of Long Term Care

AGS Members Make More Than 70 Visits to Congressmen During Society’s “Congressional Visits Program;” 13 Lawmakers Endorse Key Legislation Following Visits
More than 150 AGS members met with nearly 80 legislators to urge support for legislation aimed at improving older Americans’ access to quality healthcare during the Society’s 2008 Annual Scientific Meeting in Washington, DC, in May.

Members urged legislators to support the Geriatric Assessment and Chronic Care Coordination Act (GACCCA), the bipartisan Caring for an Aging America Act, and the Geriatricians Loan Forgiveness Act, and to adequately fund Title VII Health Professions Programs, the NIA, and the VA. In addition, they alerted lawmakers and their staffs to the findings and recommendations in the Institute of Medicine’s Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce.

Within hours of the visits, 13 additional congressmen endorsed the GACCCA, the Caring for an Aging America Act of 2008, and the Geriatricians Loan Forgiveness Act.

AMA House of Delegates Approves AGS Resolution on the IOM's Retooling for An Aging America Report
An AGS resolution calling on the American Medical Association (AMA) to join specialty societies in reviewing the Institute of Medicine’s Retooling for an Aging America: Rebuilding the Health Care Workforce won approval of the AMA’s House of Delegates (HOD) earlier this summer. The April IOM report recommends immediate action to prepare the U.S. workforce for the coming age boom. Proposed during the HOD meeting in Chicago, the AGS resolution also calls on the AMA to work with specialty societies to draft suggestions this year for supporting and helping implement key recommendations in the IOM report.

The resolution was cosponsored by the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, the American Academy of Home Care Physicians, the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, the American Medical Directors Association, and the American Psychiatric Association. The AGS looks forward to continued work with the AMA and other supporting organizations to advance the IOM’s recommendations.

President Threatens Veto of Legislation to Block 10.6% Medicare Pay Cut
President Bush was threatening to veto legislation—newly approved by veto-proof margins in the House and Senate—that would rescind a mandated 10.6% cut in Medicare payments to physicians as this issue of Annals of Long-Term Care went to press July 15.

In a recent AMA survey, 60% of physicians indicated that the cut would make caring for Medicare beneficiaries so financially untenable that they would be forced to limit the number of new Medicare patients they saw. Mandated by Medicare’s controversial Sustainable Growth Rate formula, the pay cut was slated to take effect July 1. On June 30, however, the Administration moved to delay processing of Medicare claims through July 15.

Should the President—who, with other Republicans, has balked at provisions in the bill that would offset the costs of rescinding the cut by trimming payments to private Medicare Advantage plans—veto the legislation, both chambers of Congress would have to override the veto with a two-thirds majority. “Rest assured that we will make very sure that this bill becomes law through a veto override,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) promised.

In an initial vote on June 26, the Senate was able to muster just 59 of the 60 votes needed to pass the Medicare legislation with a veto-proof margin. A 355 to 59 June 24 vote in favor in the House, however, encouraged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to continue pressing for approval. On July 9, roughly two weeks after the overwhelming, bipartisan House vote, the Senate passed the legislation in a veto-resistant 69-30 vote. Sen.