AANS and CNS join other surgical organizations to oppose 'Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act'

Dec 2 2009

The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) have joined 17 other surgical organizations in opposing the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The surgical coalition, which includes more than 240,000 surgeons and anesthesiologists, has just sent the U.S. Senate a letter detailing our major concerns with this legislation.

Troy M. Tippett, MD, President of the AANS, explains, “Almost a month ago, our coalition sent Senator Reid an initial letter outlining a number of serious issues that needed to be addressed to ensure that any final healthcare reform package would be built on a solid foundation in the best interest of our patients. Since those concerns have not been adequately addressed, we must oppose the legislation as it is currently written.”

Gerald E. Rodts, MD, President of the CNS adds, “While overall we certainly support healthcare reform, and we have been working diligently and in good faith with the Senate during the past year to provide our input, from a surgical standpoint we believe Senator Reid’s bill seriously misses the mark and several provisions in this bill will actually threaten patient access to surgical care.”

A few elements of the bill that the Surgical Coalition opposes include: the establishment and proposed implementation of an Independent Medicare Advisory Board whose recommendations could become law without congressional action; mandatory participation in a seriously flawed Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) program with penalties for non-participation; creation of a budget-neutral value-based payment modifier which CMS does not have the capability to implement; and the absence of a permanent fix to Medicare’s broken physician payment system and any meaningful proven medical liability reforms.