Last week, the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Children's Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act of 2007 that would reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and invest an additional $50 billion dollars, over a period of five years, in the program. This bill would make a number of changes in the Medicare program, some of those include:
- halting the scheduled 10% cut to the 2008 Medicare fee schedule rates and providing two years of positive updates (0.5% in 2008 and 0.5% in 2009);
- extending the exceptions process to the Medicare therapy caps for two years (currently, the exceptions process is scheduled to expire at the end of 2007);
- allowing private-practice speech-language pathologists to bill Medicare directly (H.R. 1774 & S. 45); and
- freezing further implementation of Medicare's so-called "75% Rule" on inpatient rehabilitation facilities.
ASHA would like to thank the ASHA members who contacted their U.S. Representatives on these important issues. The CHAMP Act is a large health care bill which touches on various health care issues. Many members of Congress and the President are likely to oppose this bill for reasons other than the Medicare provisions described above.
Although ASHA has concerns about some provisions in the 462-page legislation, it supports the bill and will continue to work toward fixing the provisions that raise concerns.
The U.S. House of Representatives is likely to vote on the CHAMP Act this week. Since the bill is controversial, every vote counts. ASHA will be asking members to call their U.S. Representatives later this week to ask them to vote for the CHAMP Act because it includes a number of ASHA legislative priorities listed above.
For further information, please contact Elizabeth Mundinger, ASHA's Director of Federal and Political Advocacy, by e-mail at emundinger@asha.org or by phone at 800-498-2071, ext. 4473.
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