MSSNY PULSE

Despite intense advocacy efforts by MSSNY together with the AMA and countless medical associations across the country, efforts to reverse steep cuts to Medicare payments were dealt a significant blow when the US House Republican Majority’s Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government through September excluded the promised fix for physician payments. MSSNY President Dr. Jerome Cohen issued a statement condemning the House leadership for its failure to protect access care for New York’s and our nation’s seniors New York’s Doctors Stunned that Congress Abandons America’s Seniors and their Physicians., and called upon New York’s Congressional delegation particularly its 6 GOP delegation members – Garbarino, LaLota, Langworthy, Lawler, Malliotakis, and Tenney to urge their leadership to fight for its inclusion.

Following the issuance of MSSNY’s statement, as well as the AMA and many other groups, it was reported in numerous media outlets that Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Thune committed to addressing the cuts in the upcoming budget reconciliation bill Republican leadership commits to doc pay fix in reconciliation, though the timeline for that legislation’s consideration is unclear.

As this continues to unfold, physicians are urged to continue applying pressure on their members of Congress through MSSNY’s Grassroots Action Center (GAC) and ask that they work to reverse the Medicare cuts that went into effect on January 1, and to provide increases to ensure stability for the program in the future.

At the same time that we are advocating to help maintain access to physician care for patients covered by Medicare, we are also working to prevent potentially steep cuts to the Medicaid program. Physicians are urged to send a letter to their members of Congress Protect Patient Access to Comprehensive Care: Stop Deep Cuts to Medicaid to help preserve coverage and fair payment for care provided to the millions of New Yorkers covered under the Medicaid program.

MSSNY is collaborating with a large coalition of patient and health care provider groups across New York State and has signed onto a letter to members of New York’s Congressional Delegation NY Delegation-Letter-Protect-Medicaid-January-2025.pdf urging them to oppose deep proposed cuts to the Medicaid program and other essential publicly financed health insurance programs. While the recent Budget resolution did not specifically implement cuts, it assigns a nearly $900 billion reduction target to the House Energy & Commerce Committee, with Medicaid as a major program under their authority.

These proposed cuts would have a significant domino effect, resulting in deep reductions to programs in New York State that currently support millions of patients. MSSNY has also joined a letter to Congressional leaders from dozens of state medical associations State Medical Assn Letter to Congress (022725).pdf across the country to prevent these Medicaid cuts. Additionally, several county medical societies have participated in locally focused joint stakeholder letters to their local Congressional representatives.

This week, the Senate and Assembly each passed their respective “one-House” Budget proposals to frame the discussions for upcoming “3-way” Budget negotiations with the Governor’s office towards adoption of an April 1 Budget.

Both One-House Budget Proposals Rejected the Following Items Strongly Opposed by MSSNY, including:

• Eliminating Access to Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR). One-House Budgets did not include the proposal to eliminate the right of physicians to appeal Medicaid Managed Care underpayments to IDR. Please continue to send communications to your legislators to oppose this measure here: Retain Physicians’ Right to Use Independent Dispute Resolution Process in Medicaid Managed Care Claims.

• Removing Important County Medical Society Review Role. One-House proposals did not include the proposal to eliminate the historical role of county medical societies in vetting physicians to participate in the Workers’ Compensation (WC) program. This week 40 county medical societies joined MSSNY in reiterating our collective strong opposition to this proposal A.3005-Workers-Comp-Oppose-from-County-Med-Soc.pdf. Please continue to send communications to your legislators urging them to oppose this measure here: Preserve Role of County Medical Societies in Workers’ Compensation Application Process.

• Increasing Liability Costs. Both one-House proposals did not include the proposal requiring physicians to pay 50% of the Excess Medical Malpractice Insurance cost – a $40,000,000 imposition on the 16,000 physicians with Excess coverage, which would be on top of the already outrageously high medical liability insurance premiums they already pay. Please continue to send communications urging legislators to oppose this measure here: Reject Physician Cost-Share for Excess Insurance Program.

• Eliminating Physician Supervision. Both One-House proposals did not include the proposal to eliminate the requirement for physician supervision of the healthcare services provided by Physician Assistants (PAs). Please continue to send communications urging your legislators to oppose this measure here: Preserve Physician-led, Team-based Healthcare.

• Eliminating Funding Source for CPH. Both one-House proposals did not include the proposal to transfer the registration of physicians and PAs from the State Education Department to the Health Department. The Executive Budget proposal deleted the component of the biennial physician registration fee that is specifically set aside to fund the essential substance abuse counseling services provided to physicians in need through MSSNY’s Committee for Physicians Health (CPH) program. It does not repeal the CPH program but would make it harder to fund in future Budget years.

Support for Fixing the Unworkable Consent Law. Unfortunately, both one-House Budgets did not include the proposal supported by MSSNY in Part L of the HMH that would revise the unworkable provider financial consent requirement enacted last year (currently “on hold”) that consent for payment from the patient be received after services are delivered. Please urge your legislators to support including this measure as the final State Budget is being negotiated. Revise Requirement to Obtain Patient Consent to Bill After Services Delivered.

Other Provisions of Note. Importantly, both the Assembly and Senate one-House Budget proposals included the annual $990,000 funding level for MSSNY’s Committee for Physicians’ Health program and $50 million in new funding to enhance physician Medicaid payments, similar to what had been proposed in the Executive Budget.