About this newsletter
The ACP Advocate is an e-newsletter, edited by the College's Washington, DC governmental affairs division, created to provide you, our members, with succinct news about public policy issues affecting internal medicine and patient care. To learn more about ACP's Advocacy and to access the ACP Advocate archives, go to www.acponline.org/advocacy. |
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Welcome to The ACP Advocate.
It was good to see so many of you in San Diego for Internal Medicine 2011. I enjoyed seeing you at the Government Affairs booth in the Exhibit Hall and at our sessions. Our first two stories this week let you know about new policies we released at the meeting.
Our first story is about a new policy paper calling for a national policy on health care for immigrants. National Immigration Policy and Access to Health Care points out the many challenges faced by immigrants, both documented and undocumented, in seeking health care services and details the issues that need to be considered in developing a new policy.
The second story looks at our new Medicaid and Health Care Reform paper. This paper is a comprehensive outline of improvements that we believe need to be made to the Medicaid program to ensure its successful continuance. I know the difficultly many of you face in weighing whether or not you can afford to treat Medicaid patients. Improving the program is crucial to making sure that the additional patients who will now be covered by Medicaid as a result of the Affordable Care Act will really be gaining increased access to care.
Finally our last story in the issue details for you new publications from the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative that were released at their recent meeting. These new publications run the gamut from how employers can use metrics to see if their health care initiatives are helping employees; to showing how the patient centered medical home can be used to improve diabetes care. I hope you’ll take a moment to check out the new offerings.
For more coverage of what’s happening in Washington, take a look at my award-winning blog, The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty. You can also follow me on Twitter @BobDohertyACP.
And, as always, please send your feedback and suggestions on this newsletter to: TheACPAdvocate@acponline.org
Yours truly,
Bob Doherty
Senior Vice President
Governmental Affairs and Public Policy
American College of Physicians
Welcome to The ACP Advocate.
It was good to see so many of you in San Diego for Internal Medicine 2011. I enjoyed seeing you at the Government Affairs booth in the Exhibit Hall and at our sessions. Our first two stories this week let you know about new policies we released at the meeting.
Our first story is about a new policy paper calling for a national policy on health care for immigrants. National Immigration Policy and Access to Health Care points out the many challenges faced by immigrants, both documented and undocumented, in seeking health care services and details the issues that need to be considered in developing a new policy.
The second story looks at our new Medicaid and Health Care Reform paper. This paper is a comprehensive outline of improvements that we believe need to be made to the Medicaid program to ensure its successful continuance. I know the difficultly many of you face in weighing whether or not you can afford to treat Medicaid patients. Improving the program is crucial to making sure that the additional patients who will now be covered by Medicaid as a result of the Affordable Care Act will really be gaining increased access to care.
Finally our last story in the issue details for you new publications from the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative that were released at their recent meeting. These new publications run the gamut from how employers can use metrics to see if their health care initiatives are helping employees; to showing how the patient centered medical home can be used to improve diabetes care. I hope you’ll take a moment to check out the new offerings.
For more coverage of what’s happening in Washington, take a look at my award-winning blog, The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty. You can also follow me on Twitter @BobDohertyACP.
And, as always, please send your feedback and suggestions on this newsletter to: TheACPAdvocate@acponline.org
Yours truly,
Bob Doherty
Senior Vice President
Governmental Affairs and Public Policy
American College of Physicians
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In focus
1099 Reporting Requirement Repealed
Last week President Obama signed into law a repeal of the expanded Form 1099 information reporting rules that had been enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act. The requirement would have required small business owners to file a 1099 for every vendor who they paid more than $600 in a year. ACP was strongly opposed to the requirement because of the extreme burden it would have placed on small practices and had been advocating with Congress for its repeal since its enactment last year. |
Registration Opens for EHR Incentive Program
The Registration and Attestation System for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program is now live. Physicians who are interested in participating in the program that allows you to earn an incentive payment for demonstrating “meaningful use” of a qualified EHR system can find more information on the American EHR website about how to access the new system and about additional program materials that are also available. |
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