The New Jersey Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers has announced a "bus-in" day to Washington, D.C., on Sept. 14 to lobby the New Jersey Congressional delegation in support of the ASC Quality and Access Act of 2011.
The legislation (H.R. 2108, S. 1173) aims to preserve patient access to high-quality, cost-effective healthcare services that ASCs provide. The bill would put into place policies to establish reasonable Medicare reimbursement for ASCs while encouraging additional cost savings for Medicare. It would help "modernize" the way ASCs are paid by tying ASC Medicare payment updates to the Hospital Market Basket, rather than to the volatile Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers.
"This legislation is very important for all surgical centers, no matter your size, specialty or network status," said Jeffrey Shanton, chair, Advocacy & Legislative Affairs Committee of the NJAASC, in a news release. "In light of commercial carriers utilizing the Medicare Fee Schedule more and more as a basis for reimbursement — inappropriately in my opinion — anything that gets us more in line with HOPD is welcome. We are urging all of our members, their doctor/owners, employees, anyone and everyone, to join us. Grassroots advocacy like this is an extremely important tool, but it requires the efforts of a lot of people to be effective."
The NJAASC's Advocacy & Legislative Affairs Committee has already begun a letter writing campaign in support of this legislation, and the organization has officially supported the bill with letters to each of its congressmen, according to the release.
For more information about the NJAASC bus-in, contact Andrew Weiss, NJAASC treasurer, at aweiss@theendocenter.com.
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