Medicare Advantage Participant Bill of Rights Act of 2014

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (as first introduced in the 111th Congress). Support the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Supporting the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Supporting the Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program; voiced strong opposition to the American Health Care Act in March 2017 because it would cap the federal contribution to Medicaid or block grant the program, end support for Medicaid expansion, repeal essential evidence-based benefits, or replace the Affordable Care Acts income-based premium and cost-saving subsidies with regressive age-based ones that will raise premiums and deductibles for most Americans, especially, for older, poorer and sicker patients. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Advocated in support of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), which was enacted in April 2015 and repealed Medicares Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and moved us to a new value-based payment and delivery system under Medicare; Advocated with CMS on numerous aspects of the MACRA proposed and final rules, including: proposing a distinctive alternative scoring methodology, developed by ACP, which combines, simplifies, aligns and reduces the complexity of the four reporting categories that will qualify physicians for FFS payment adjustments in 2019; proposing specific alternatives to CMS Advancing Care Information program that is to replace the current Meaningful Use program; proposing additional improvements to simplify the reporting requirements for the Quality, Advancing Care Information and Clinical Practice Improvement categories; urging CMS to immediately create virtual reporting options and to create safe harbors for smaller practices until such options are available; proposing more options and flexibility, instead of a one-size fits all approach, for practices to be certified as Patient-Centered Medical Homes or Patient-Centered Medical Home specialty practices, qualifying them for the highest possible score for the Clinical Practice Improvement Activity reporting category; Proposing four different options for Medical Home practices to qualify as advanced Alternative Payment Models, instead of the single option proposed by CMS, including options to allow PCMHs to qualify without taking financial risk: Advocated with CMS on Patient Relationship Categories and Codes, as required by MACRA, specifically: that CMS work to ensure that patients, families, and the relationship of patients and families with their physicians are at the forefront of the Agencys thinking in the development of both the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Model (APM) pathways; that the implementation of these categories and codes is carried out in a manner that fully considers and minimizes the impact of reporting burden on the participating clinicians and that has appropriate flexibility to allow for learning and improvement in the approach by both the Agency and the clinicians; that CMS use its authority to adjust resource use down from 10 percent in the first performance period by setting resource use at zero and increasing the quality performance category by 10 percent to make up for the difference; that CMS ensures the utmost transparency in how the Agency attributes cost, based on the use of the patient relationship categories and codes, along with the codes for care episodes and patient conditions; that CMS allow all Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) to be eligible to participate in Track 1+ and to not restrict participation based on ACO size or composition (ex. only physician-led ACOs or small ACOs); that CMS allow current ACOs to move into Track 1+ at the start of any performance year and not be required to wait until the beginning of their next three-year agreement period; that Track 1+ utilize the same benchmarking methodology used for the other MSSP tracks; that CMS implement a minimum threshold of 5,000 beneficiaries for Track 1+, which is consistent with the other MSSP tracks but is lower than the 10,000 (or 7,500 for rural ACOs) beneficiary threshold used in the Next Generation ACO model. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). In the 114th Congress, advocated for S.1148/H.R.2124 and H.R. 1117-to strategically increase the number of GME training positions in primary care specialties (including internal medicine) and other specialties facing shortages. Urged lawmakers to combine DGME and IME into a single, more functional payment program, and broaden the GME financing structure to include all payers; Allocate GME funds transparently and specifically to activities that further the educational mission of teaching and training residents and fellows with input from practicing clinicians and in collaboration with their professional organizations. FY2017 Appropriations: Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ and Patient Centered Outcome Research Trust Fund, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Under the Affordable Care Act, advocated to ensure that people residing in states with health insurance marketplaces operated by the federal government do not lose their premium subsidies in the event that the Supreme Court rules in favor of the petitioners in the King versus Burwell case. Congress should not make changes in the ACA that would result in more uninsured persons or weaken consumer protections. Pilot test Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Health Information Technology: Commented to HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technologys (ONCs) Draft 2017 Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA), recommending that ONC focus its efforts to identify, repair, and mitigate the negative effects of rapidly spreading bad data; rather than requiring EHRs and other clinical health IT to support multiple separate standards for extracting data for quality, public health, research, payment, and other reporting purposes, ONC should commission development of a single application programming interface (API) for all of the query and data extraction requirements. Urged lawmakers to require the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) to develop and implement national EHR interoperability standards with direct input from practicing clinicians on the necessary data elements for care delivery, quality improvement and reporting, including the need for a narrative that provides the context of the care needed; Exempt clinicians in small/medium-sized practices from unfunded mandates that require them to purchase health IT software, services or infrastructure to support data exchanges with little or no clinical value, as determined by the Secretary with input from practicing physicians. Opioid Abuse: ACP supports efforts in trying to improve access to care and treatment for those suffering from mental health and substance abuse disorders. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP supports a comprehensive national policy on prescription drug abuse containing education, monitoring, proper disposal, and enforcement elements. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP is supportive of expanding access to naloxone within the community. ACP also supports the policy proposal known as partial-fill. This would allow a patient to elect to receive a portion of a prescription, and return for either a portion of, or the remainder of the prescription, if the pain persists, up to a 30-day maximum. Urged lawmakers to include language in the final House opioids legislative package to ensure healthcare providers who are engaged in population health initiatives have access to the medical records they need, including information on substance use disorders, to effectively and safely treat their patients; Urged lawmakers to reach agreement on a final conference report to the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) that would include: Development of a federal interagency task force to review, modify, and update, as appropriate, best practices for pain management and prescribing pain medication; Grants to states to expand awareness and education of physicians, patients, health care providers regarding the risks associated with the misuse of opioids; A comprehensive Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) to track the dispensing of controlled substances; Increased availability of opioid overdose reversal drugs; Alternatives to incarceration to individuals who misuse opioid drugs and other substances to manage their pain. Zika: ACP urged lawmakers to pass legislation that would provide the highest possible funding level for research, prevention, control, and treatment of illnesses associated with the Zika virus that is commensurate with the public health emergency that the virus represents. Prescription Drugs: ACP advocated support for lawmakers efforts in preventing some brand-name drug-companies from using statutorily required Food and Drug Administration (FDA) risk and safety programs to stifle other companies development of generic and biosimilar versions of brand-name drugs, specifically through introduction of the CREATES Act. Urged lawmakers to increase transparency in drug pricing by requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to publically disclose production costs including research and development investments for specific high�cost drugs that the Secretary identifies through regulation; Authorize and appropriate $2.74 billion in discretionary spending for the FDA to expedite, through fast-track approval, new drugs that address unmet medical need in the treatment of a serious or life threatening condition, as well as to address the back-log of pending generic drug applications; Grant authority to the Secretary of HHS to negotiate prescription drug prices with manufacturers for prescription drugs covered under Part D of the Medicare program. Expressed support for S. 41, the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act that will empower the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate with pharmaceutical manufacturers the prices (including discounts, rebates, and other price concessions) that may be charged for prescription drugs covered under Medicare Part D in prescription drug plans that participate in this program. Medical Liability Reform: Expressed support for H.R. 1215, the Protecting Access to Care Act of 2017, which would set a federal limit on the amount of non-economic damages to $250,000 and would enact a fair share rule that specifies that in any health care lawsuit, each party shall be liable for that partys share of damages only and not for the share of any other person. It would specify that any state law that imposes different standards on non-economic damages or separate limits on a partys share of damages would supersede any new caps imposed by this legislation regardless of whether the amount imposed by the states is greater or less than those imposed by H.R. 1215. Chronic Care Management: Urged lawmakers to eliminate the beneficiary co-pay for chronic care management (CCM) services, require reimbursement and coverage of additional codes for more complex CCM services, direct HHS to authorize payment for CCM codes to allow physicians to spend up to 40 minutes with a patient and an additional code that would allow for 60 minutes of treatment for a patient with multiple chronic illnesses. Telemedicine: Urged lawmakers to broadly lift geographic restrictions on telemedicine, facilitate the use of such telehealth services in stroke treatment, and incorporate the use of these services into ACOs, cosponsor bipartisan legislation, Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) For Health Act (the CONNECT For Health Act), H.R. 4442/S. 2484, which would expand the use of telemedicine and remote patient monitoring (RPM) services by physicians to improve care of patients enrolled in Medicare. Mental Health: Urged lawmakers to establish grants, including Innovation and Demonstration grants, to State and local governments, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations for integrating or coordinating physical health, mental health and substance abuse services; Provide a defined portion of grant funding to the effective integration of services to address mental illness and substance abuse within the primary care setting and to expand a workforce trained to integrate behavioral health within the primary care setting. 21st Century Cures Act: Advocated with Congress on several elements of the 21st Century Cures Act, comprehensive legislation designed to accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of new cures and treatments. These elements included: support for moving the health information technology (health IT) ecosystem toward an interoperable health information network, combatting business practices that inhibit the flow of information by establishing authority for the HHS Office of Inspector General to investigate claims of information blocking and assign penalties for activities found to be interfering with the lawful sharing of electronic information, ensuring that health care clinicians are not penalized for the failure of developers of health IT in the case of information blocking, the establishment of hardship exemptions from Meaningful Use and the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) payment adjustments due to the decertification of an electronic health record (EHR) and, a commitment to develop a strategy around reducing regulatory and administrative burdens, improving and increasing access to treatment for patients suffering from mental health and substance use disorders and ensure better understanding and enforcement of mental health parity laws, accelerating the integration of behavioral health into the primary care setting. Vaccines: Expressed strong support to the President for the safety of vaccines; Claims that vaccines are unsafe when administered according to expert recommendations have been disproven by a robust body of medical literature, including a thorough review by the National Academy of Medicine (formerly known as the Institute of Medicine). Immigration (Health): Expressed concern that the executive order signed by President Trump on January 27, 2017 will result in discrimination against foreign-born persons from certain predominantly Muslim countries; that by restricting entry of physicians and medical students from seven designated Muslim majority countries, the order will undermine medical education and result in patients losing access to their doctors; that the 120 day ban on accepting refugees, and the indefinite ban on Syrian refugees, will contribute to an ongoing public health crisis for those affected, needlessly subjecting them to violence, injury, illness, deprivation and even death. Expressed support for S. 128, the Bar Removal of Individuals who Dream and Grow our Economy Act (BRIDGE Act), which would allow people who are eligible for or who have received work authorization and temporary relief from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to continue living in the U.S. with permission from the federal government for three years after the date of enactment of this legislation. Insurance Market Stabilization: Commented on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Proposed Rule: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Market Stabilization. Specifically, the Agency should not allow issuers to deny coverage enrollees with bad debt; instead, the issuer should be required to enroll the individual and allow the enrollee to pay the outstanding debt over a period of time; recommended that the open enrollment period for plan year 2018 begin on November 1, 2017 and end on January 31, 2018; States operating a state-based, state-based/federal platform, and partnership marketplaces should be permitted to establish longer open enrollment periods; Expressed concern about the proliferation of narrow provider networks, that tight provider networks coupled with inaccurate provider directories create a frustrating, confusing and expensive experience for patients seeking care from their preferred physicians.

Client expense: $89,122 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (as first introduced in the 111th Congress). Support the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Supporting the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Supporting the Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Advocated in support of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), which was enacted in April 2015 and repealed Medicares Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and moved us to a new value-based payment and delivery system under Medicare; Advocated with CMS on numerous aspects of the MACRA proposed and final rules, including: proposing a distinctive alternative scoring methodology, developed by ACP, which combines, simplifies, aligns and reduces the complexity of the four reporting categories that will qualify physicians for FFS payment adjustments in 2019; proposing specific alternatives to CMS Advancing Care Information program that is to replace the current Meaningful Use program; proposing additional improvements to simplify the reporting requirements for the Quality, Advancing Care Information and Clinical Practice Improvement categories; urging CMS to immediately create virtual reporting options and to create safe harbors for smaller practices until such options are available; proposing more options and flexibility, instead of a one-size fits all approach, for practices to be certified as Patient-Centered Medical Homes or Patient-Centered Medical Home specialty practices, qualifying them for the highest possible score for the Clinical Practice Improvement Activity reporting category; Proposing four different options for Medical Home practices to qualify as advanced Alternative Payment Models, instead of the single option proposed by CMS, including options to allow PCMHs to qualify without taking financial risk: Advocated with CMS on Patient Relationship Categories and Codes, as required by MACRA, specifically: that CMS work to ensure that patients, families, and the relationship of patients and families with their physicians are at the forefront of the Agencys thinking in the development of both the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Model (APM) pathways; that the implementation of these categories and codes is carried out in a manner that fully considers and minimizes the impact of reporting burden on the participating clinicians and that has appropriate flexibility to allow for learning and improvement in the approach by both the Agency and the clinicians; that CMS use its authority to adjust resource use down from 10 percent in the first performance period by setting resource use at zero and increasing the quality performance category by 10 percent to make up for the difference; that CMS ensures the utmost transparency in how the Agency attributes cost, based on the use of the patient relationship categories and codes, along with the codes for care episodes and patient conditions; that CMS allow all Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) to be eligible to participate in Track 1+ and to not restrict participation based on ACO size or composition (ex. only physician-led ACOs or small ACOs); that CMS allow current ACOs to move into Track 1+ at the start of any performance year and not be required to wait until the beginning of their next three-year agreement period; that Track 1+ utilize the same benchmarking methodology used for the other MSSP tracks; that CMS implement a minimum threshold of 5,000 beneficiaries for Track 1+, which is consistent with the other MSSP tracks but is lower than the 10,000 (or 7,500 for rural ACOs) beneficiary threshold used in the Next Generation ACO model. Medicare Physician Fee Schedule: Commented to CMS in Sept/Oct 2016 on the proposed rule that included numerous recommendations, including but not limited to: supports the proposed code additions to the list of Medicare approved telehealth services; supports CMS proposal to review the 83 indicated codes and will be involved to the extent possible through the Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) process; recommends CMS seek specific direction on how to revise and improve on the policies related to End-Stage Renal Disease home dialysis; recommends the use of CPT code 99024 (postoperative follow-up visit, normally included in the surgical package, to indicate that an evaluation and management (E/M) service was performed during a postoperative period for a reason(s) related to the original procedure) to identify the number of postoperative visits associated with a surgical procedure; urges CMS to hold clinicians providing global surgical services to the same documentation standards and guidelines as clinicians performing E/M services when providing a visit. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). In the 114th Congress, advocated for S.1148/H.R.2124 and H.R. 1117-to strategically increase the number of GME training positions in primary care specialties (including internal medicine) and other specialties facing shortages. Urged lawmakers to combine DGME and IME into a single, more functional payment program, and broaden the GME financing structure to include all payers; Allocate GME funds transparently and specifically to activities that further the educational mission of teaching and training residents and fellows with input from practicing clinicians and in collaboration with their professional organizations. FY2017 Appropriations: Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ and Patient Centered Outcome Research Trust Fund, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Under the Affordable Care Act, advocated to ensure that people residing in states with health insurance marketplaces operated by the federal government do not lose their premium subsidies in the event that the Supreme Court rules in favor of the petitioners in the King versus Burwell case. Congress should not make changes in the ACA that would result in more uninsured persons or weaken consumer protections. Pilot test Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Health Information Technology: Commented to HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technologys (ONCs) Draft 2017 Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA), recommending that ONC focus its efforts to identify, repair, and mitigate the negative effects of rapidly spreading bad data; rather than requiring EHRs and other clinical health IT to support multiple separate standards for extracting data for quality, public health, research, payment, and other reporting purposes, ONC should commission development of a single application programming interface (API) for all of the query and data extraction requirements. Urged lawmakers to require the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) to develop and implement national EHR interoperability standards with direct input from practicing clinicians on the necessary data elements for care delivery, quality improvement and reporting, including the need for a narrative that provides the context of the care needed; Exempt clinicians in small/medium-sized practices from unfunded mandates that require them to purchase health IT software, services or infrastructure to support data exchanges with little or no clinical value, as determined by the Secretary with input from practicing physicians. Opioid Abuse: ACP supports efforts in trying to improve access to care and treatment for those suffering from mental health and substance abuse disorders. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP supports a comprehensive national policy on prescription drug abuse containing education, monitoring, proper disposal, and enforcement elements. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP is supportive of expanding access to naloxone within the community. ACP also supports the policy proposal known as partial-fill. This would allow a patient to elect to receive a portion of a prescription, and return for either a portion of, or the remainder of the prescription, if the pain persists, up to a 30-day maximum. Urged lawmakers to include language in the final House opioids legislative package to ensure healthcare providers who are engaged in population health initiatives have access to the medical records they need, including information on substance use disorders, to effectively and safely treat their patients; Urged lawmakers to reach agreement on a final conference report to the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) that would include: Development of a federal interagency task force to review, modify, and update, as appropriate, best practices for pain management and prescribing pain medication; Grants to states to expand awareness and education of physicians, patients, health care providers regarding the risks associated with the misuse of opioids; A comprehensive Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) to track the dispensing of controlled substances; Increased availability of opioid overdose reversal drugs; Alternatives to incarceration to individuals who misuse opioid drugs and other substances to manage their pain. Zika: ACP urged lawmakers to pass legislation that would provide the highest possible funding level for research, prevention, control, and treatment of illnesses associated with the Zika virus that is commensurate with the public health emergency that the virus represents. Prescription Drugs: ACP advocated support for lawmakers efforts in preventing some brand-name drug-companies from using statutorily required Food and Drug Administration (FDA) risk and safety programs to stifle other companies development of generic and biosimilar versions of brand-name drugs, specifically through introduction of the CREATES Act of 2016. Urged lawmakers to increase transparency in drug pricing by requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to publically disclose production costs including research and development investments for specific high�cost drugs that the Secretary identifies through regulation; Authorize and appropriate $2.74 billion in discretionary spending for the FDA to expedite, through fast-track approval, new drugs that address unmet medical need in the treatment of a serious or life threatening condition, as well as to address the back-log of pending generic drug applications; Grant authority to the Secretary of HHS to negotiate prescription drug prices with manufacturers for prescription drugs covered under Part D of the Medicare program. Firearms: ACP urged lawmakers to expand background checks on all gun purchases making it more difficult for known or suspected terrorists to purchase firearms; Urged lawmakers to reject a proposal that would allow people who have been involuntarily committed due to severe mental illness to buy a gun immediately after leaving a psychiatric hospital and enable veterans who suffer from severe mental illness, and who are at risk of suicide, to legally buy guns. Chronic Care Management: Urged lawmakers to eliminate the beneficiary co-pay for chronic care management (CCM) services, require reimbursement and coverage of additional codes for more complex CCM services, direct HHS to authorize payment for CCM codes to allow physicians to spend up to 40 minutes with a patient and an additional code that would allow for 60 minutes of treatment for a patient with multiple chronic illnesses. Telemedicine: Urged lawmakers to broadly lift geographic restrictions on telemedicine, facilitate the use of such telehealth services in stroke treatment, and incorporate the use of these services into ACOs, cosponsor bipartisan legislation, Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) For Health Act (the CONNECT For Health Act), H.R. 4442/S. 2484, which would expand the use of telemedicine and remote patient monitoring (RPM) services by physicians to improve care of patients enrolled in Medicare. Mental Health: Urged lawmakers to establish grants, including Innovation and Demonstration grants, to State and local governments, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations for integrating or coordinating physical health, mental health and substance abuse services; Provide a defined portion of grant funding to the effective integration of services to address mental illness and substance abuse within the primary care setting and to expand a workforce trained to integrate behavioral health within the primary care setting. Veterans Affairs: Commented on the VAs proposed rule regarding Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, specifically: Urged the VA to eliminate the proposal to amend the medical regulations within the VA to permit full practice authority for all VA APRNs (which include Certified Nurse Practitioners, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, Clinical Nurse Specialists, and Certified Nurse-Midwives) when they are acting within the scope of their VA employment, thereby broadly preempting applicable state laws that do not grant such authority; Urged the VA to implement alternative approaches that support dynamic clinical care teams rather than by granting full independent practice authority to APRNs. 21st Century Cures Act: Advocated with Congress on several elements of the 21st Century Cures Act, comprehensive legislation designed to accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of new cures and treatments. These elements included: support for moving the health information technology (health IT) ecosystem toward an interoperable health information network, combatting business practices that inhibit the flow of information by establishing authority for the HHS Office of Inspector General to investigate claims of information blocking and assign penalties for activities found to be interfering with the lawful sharing of electronic information, ensuring that health care clinicians are not penalized for the failure of developers of health IT in the case of information blocking, the establishment of hardship exemptions from Meaningful Use and the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) payment adjustments due to the decertification of an electronic health record (EHR) and, a commitment to develop a strategy around reducing regulatory and administrative burdens, improving and increasing access to treatment for patients suffering from mental health and substance use disorders and ensure better understanding and enforcement of mental health parity laws, accelerating the integration of behavioral health into the primary care setting.

Client expense: $243,989 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE, Veterans Affairs, Dept of (VA)

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (as first introduced in the 111th Congress). Support the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Supporting the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Supporting the Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Advocated in support of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), which was enacted in April 2015 and repealed Medicares Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and moved us to a new value-based payment and delivery system under Medicare; Advocated with CMS on numerous aspects of the MACRA proposed and final rules, including: proposing a distinctive alternative scoring methodology, developed by ACP, which combines, simplifies, aligns and reduces the complexity of the four reporting categories that will qualify physicians for FFS payment adjustments in 2019; proposing specific alternatives to CMS Advancing Care Information program that is to replace the current Meaningful Use program; proposing additional improvements to simplify the reporting requirements for the Quality, Advancing Care Information and Clinical Practice Improvement categories; urging CMS to immediately create virtual reporting options and to create safe harbors for smaller practices until such options are available; proposing more options and flexibility, instead of a one-size fits all approach, for practices to be certified as Patient-Centered Medical Homes or Patient-Centered Medical Home specialty practices, qualifying them for the highest possible score for the Clinical Practice Improvement Activity reporting category; Proposing four different options for Medical Home practices to qualify as advanced Alternative Payment Models, instead of the single option proposed by CMS, including options to allow PCMHs to qualify without taking financial risk: Advocated with CMS on Patient Relationship Categories and Codes, as required by MACRA, specifically: that CMS work to ensure that patients, families, and the relationship of patients and families with their physicians are at the forefront of the Agencys thinking in the development of both the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Model (APM) pathways; that the implementation of these categories and codes is carried out in a manner that fully considers and minimizes the impact of reporting burden on the participating clinicians and that has appropriate flexibility to allow for learning and improvement in the approach by both the Agency and the clinicians; that CMS use its authority to adjust resource use down from 10 percent in the first performance period by setting resource use at zero and increasing the quality performance category by 10 percent to make up for the difference; that CMS ensures the utmost transparency in how the Agency attributes cost, based on the use of the patient relationship categories and codes, along with the codes for care episodes and patient conditions; that CMS allow all Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) to be eligible to participate in Track 1+ and to not restrict participation based on ACO size or composition (ex. only physician-led ACOs or small ACOs); that CMS allow current ACOs to move into Track 1+ at the start of any performance year and not be required to wait until the beginning of their next three-year agreement period; that Track 1+ utilize the same benchmarking methodology used for the other MSSP tracks; that CMS implement a minimum threshold of 5,000 beneficiaries for Track 1+, which is consistent with the other MSSP tracks but is lower than the 10,000 (or 7,500 for rural ACOs) beneficiary threshold used in the Next Generation ACO model. Medicare Physician Fee Schedule: Commented to CMS in Sept/Oct 2016 on the proposed rule that included numerous recommendations, including but not limited to: supports the proposed code additions to the list of Medicare approved telehealth services; supports CMS proposal to review the 83 indicated codes and will be involved to the extent possible through the Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) process; recommends CMS seek specific direction on how to revise and improve on the policies related to End-Stage Renal Disease home dialysis; recommends the use of CPT code 99024 (postoperative follow-up visit, normally included in the surgical package, to indicate that an evaluation and management (E/M) service was performed during a postoperative period for a reason(s) related to the original procedure) to identify the number of postoperative visits associated with a surgical procedure; urges CMS to hold clinicians providing global surgical services to the same documentation standards and guidelines as clinicians performing E/M services when providing a visit. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). In the 114th Congress, advocated for S.1148/H.R.2124 and H.R. 1117-to strategically increase the number of GME training positions in primary care specialties (including internal medicine) and other specialties facing shortages. Urged lawmakers to combine DGME and IME into a single, more functional payment program, and broaden the GME financing structure to include all payers; Allocate GME funds transparently and specifically to activities that further the educational mission of teaching and training residents and fellows with input from practicing clinicians and in collaboration with their professional organizations FY2017 Appropriations: Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ and Patient Centered Outcome Research Trust Fund, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Under the Affordable Care Act, advocated to ensure that people residing in states with health insurance marketplaces operated by the federal government do not lose their premium subsidies in the event that the Supreme Court rules in favor of the petitioners in the King versus Burwell case. Congress should not make changes in the ACA that would result in more uninsured persons or weaken consumer protections. Pilot test Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Health Information Technology: Commented to HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technologys (ONCs) Draft 2017 Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA), recommending that ONC focus its efforts to identify, repair, and mitigate the negative effects of rapidly spreading bad data; rather than requiring EHRs and other clinical health IT to support multiple separate standards for extracting data for quality, public health, research, payment, and other reporting purposes, ONC should commission development of a single application programming interface (API) for all of the query and data extraction requirements. Urged lawmakers to require the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) to develop and implement national EHR interoperability standards with direct input from practicing clinicians on the necessary data elements for care delivery, quality improvement and reporting, including the need for a narrative that provides the context of the care needed; Exempt clinicians in small/medium-sized practices from unfunded mandates that require them to purchase health IT software, services or infrastructure to support data exchanges with little or no clinical value, as determined by the Secretary with input from practicing physicians. Opioid Abuse: ACP supports efforts in trying to improve access to care and treatment for those suffering from mental health and substance abuse disorders. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP supports a comprehensive national policy on prescription drug abuse containing education, monitoring, proper disposal, and enforcement elements. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP is supportive of expanding access to naloxone within the community. ACP also supports the policy proposal known as partial-fill. This would allow a patient to elect to receive a portion of a prescription, and return for either a portion of, or the remainder of the prescription, if the pain persists, up to a 30-day maximum. Urged lawmakers to include language in the final House opioids legislative package to ensure healthcare providers who are engaged in population health initiatives have access to the medical records they need, including information on substance use disorders, to effectively and safely treat their patients; Urged lawmakers to reach agreement on a final conference report to the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) that would include: Development of a federal interagency task force to review, modify, and update, as appropriate, best practices for pain management and prescribing pain medication; Grants to states to expand awareness and education of physicians, patients, health care providers regarding the risks associated with the misuse of opioids; A comprehensive Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) to track the dispensing of controlled substances; Increased availability of opioid overdose reversal drugs; Alternatives to incarceration to individuals who misuse opioid drugs and other substances to manage their pain. Zika: ACP urged lawmakers to pass legislation that would provide the highest possible funding level for research, prevention, control, and treatment of illnesses associated with the Zika virus that is commensurate with the public health emergency that the virus represents. Prescription Drugs: ACP advocated support for lawmakers efforts in preventing some brand-name drug-companies from using statutorily required Food and Drug Administration (FDA) risk and safety programs to stifle other companies development of generic and biosimilar versions of brand-name drugs, specifically through introduction of the CREATES Act of 2016. Urged lawmakers to increase transparency in drug pricing by requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to publically disclose production costs including research and development investments for specific high�cost drugs that the Secretary identifies through regulation; Authorize and appropriate $2.74 billion in discretionary spending for the FDA to expedite, through fast-track approval, new drugs that address unmet medical need in the treatment of a serious or life threatening condition, as well as to address the back-log of pending generic drug applications; Grant authority to the Secretary of HHS to negotiate prescription drug prices with manufacturers for prescription drugs covered under Part D of the Medicare program. Firearms: ACP urged lawmakers to expand background checks on all gun purchases making it more difficult for known or suspected terrorists to purchase firearms; Urged lawmakers to reject a proposal that would allow people who have been involuntarily committed due to severe mental illness to buy a gun immediately after leaving a psychiatric hospital and enable veterans who suffer from severe mental illness, and who are at risk of suicide, to legally buy guns. Chronic Care Management: Urged lawmakers to eliminate the beneficiary co-pay for chronic care management (CCM) services, require reimbursement and coverage of additional codes for more complex CCM services, direct HHS to authorize payment for CCM codes to allow physicians to spend up to 40 minutes with a patient and an additional code that would allow for 60 minutes of treatment for a patient with multiple chronic illnesses. Telemedicine: Urged lawmakers to broadly lift geographic restrictions on telemedicine, facilitate the use of such telehealth services in stroke treatment, and incorporate the use of these services into ACOs, cosponsor bipartisan legislation, Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) For Health Act (the CONNECT For Health Act), H.R. 4442/S. 2484, which would expand the use of telemedicine and remote patient monitoring (RPM) services by physicians to improve care of patients enrolled in Medicare. Mental Health: Urged lawmakers to establish grants, including Innovation and Demonstration grants, to State and local governments, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations for integrating or coordinating physical health, mental health and substance abuse services; Provide a defined portion of grant funding to the effective integration of services to address mental illness and substance abuse within the primary care setting and to expand a workforce trained to integrate behavioral health within the primary care setting. Veterans Affairs: Commented on the VAs proposed rule regarding Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, specifically: Urged the VA to eliminate the proposal to amend the medical regulations within the VA to permit full practice authority for all VA APRNs (which include Certified Nurse Practitioners, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, Clinical Nurse Specialists, and Certified Nurse-Midwives) when they are acting within the scope of their VA employment, thereby broadly preempting applicable state laws that do not grant such authority; Urged the VA to implement alternative approaches that support dynamic clinical care teams rather than by granting full independent practice authority to APRNs. 21st Century Cures Act: Advocated with Congress on several elements of the 21st Century Cures Act, comprehensive legislation designed to accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of new cures and treatments. These elements included: support for moving the health information technology (health IT) ecosystem toward an interoperable health information network, combatting business practices that inhibit the flow of information by establishing authority for the HHS Office of Inspector General to investigate claims of information blocking and assign penalties for activities found to be interfering with the lawful sharing of electronic information, ensuring that health care clinicians are not penalized for the failure of developers of health IT in the case of information blocking, the establishment of hardship exemptions from Meaningful Use and the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) payment adjustments due to the decertification of an electronic health record (EHR) and, a commitment to develop a strategy around reducing regulatory and administrative burdens, improving and increasing access to treatment for patients suffering from mental health and substance use disorders and ensure better understanding and enforcement of mental health parity laws, accelerating the integration of behavioral health into the primary care setting.

Client expense: $88,904 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE, Veterans Affairs, Dept of (VA)

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Advocated in support of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), which was enacted in April 2015 and repealed Medicares Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and moved us to a new value-based payment and delivery system under Medicare; Praised members of Congress for the bipartisan effort in finally ending the SGR and for passing H.R. 2; Advocated with CMS on numerous aspects of the MACRA proposed rule, including: proposing a distinctive alternative scoring methodology, developed by ACP, which combines, simplifies, aligns and reduces the complexity of the four reporting categories that will qualify physicians for FFS payment adjustments in 2019; proposing specific alternatives to CMS Advancing Care Information program that is to replace the current Meaningful Use program; proposing additional improvements to simplify the reporting requirements for the Quality, Advancing Care Information and Clinical Practice Improvement categories; urging CMS to immediately create virtual reporting options and to create safe harbors for smaller practices until such options are available; proposing more options and flexibility, instead of a one-size fits all approach, for practices to be certified as Patient-Centered Medical Homes or Patient-Centered Medical Home specialty practices, qualifying them for the highest possible score for the Clinical Practice Improvement Activity reporting category; Proposing four different options for Medical Home practices to qualify as advanced Alternative Payment Models, instead of the single option proposed by CMS, including options to allow PCMHs to qualify without taking financial risk: Advocated with CMS on Patient Relationship Categories and Codes, as required by MACRA, specifically: that CMS work to ensure that patients, families, and the relationship of patients and families with their physicians are at the forefront of the Agencys thinking in the development of both the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Model (APM) pathways; that the implementation of these categories and codes is carried out in a manner that fully considers and minimizes the impact of reporting burden on the participating clinicians and that has appropriate flexibility to allow for learning and improvement in the approach by both the Agency and the clinicians; that CMS use its authority to adjust resource use down from 10 percent in the first performance period by setting resource use at zero and increasing the quality performance category by 10 percent to make up for the difference; that CMS ensures the utmost transparency in how the Agency attributes cost, based on the use of the patient relationship categories and codes, along with the codes for care episodes and patient conditions. Medicare Physician Fee Schedule: Commented to CMS in Sept. 2016 on the proposed rule that included numerous recommendations, including but not limited to: supports the proposed code additions to the list of Medicare approved telehealth services; supports CMS proposal to review the 83 indicated codes and will be involved to the extent possible through the Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) process; recommends CMS seek specific direction on how to revise and improve on the policies related to End-Stage Renal Disease home dialysis; recommends the use of CPT code 99024 (postoperative follow-up visit, normally included in the surgical package, to indicate that an evaluation and management (E/M) service was performed during a postoperative period for a reason(s) related to the original procedure) to identify the number of postoperative visits associated with a surgical procedure; urges CMS to hold clinicians providing global surgical services to the same documentation standards and guidelines as clinicians performing E/M services when providing a visit. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). In the 114th Congress, advocated for S.1148/H.R.2124 and H.R. 1117-to strategically increase the number of GME training positions in primary care specialties (including internal medicine) and other specialties facing shortages. Urged lawmakers to combine DGME and IME into a single, more functional payment program, and broaden the GME financing structure to include all payers; Allocate GME funds transparently and specifically to activities that further the educational mission of teaching and training residents and fellows with input from practicing clinicians and in collaboration with their professional organizations. FY2017 Appropriations: Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ and Patient Centered Outcome Research Trust Fund, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Under the Affordable Care Act, advocated to ensure that people residing in states with health insurance marketplaces operated by the federal government do not lose their premium subsidies in the event that the Supreme Court rules in favor of the petitioners in the King versus Burwell case. Congress should not make changes in the ACA that would result in more uninsured persons or weaken consumer protections. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106 in the 113th Congress), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201 (113th Congress), The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577 (113th Congress), the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487 (113th Congress), the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013 (113th Congress). Health Information Technology: Urged support for H.R. 3309, the Further Flexibility in Health Information Technology (HIT) Reporting and Advancing Interoperability Act (Flex-IT 2 Act); Advocated that CMS pause the implementation of Stage 3 meaningful use requirements until the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) is ready to be implemented, and shorten the reporting period for the EHR Incentive Payment Programs from twelve months each year to three months. H.R. 3309 would also provide the Secretary of HHS greater flexibility to change, suspend, or revoke meaningful use criteria if the requirements are not consistent with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) that was signed into law last year. Urged lawmakers to require the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) to develop and implement national EHR interoperability standards with direct input from practicing clinicians on the necessary data elements for care delivery, quality improvement and reporting, including the need for a narrative that provides the context of the care needed; Exempt clinicians in small/medium-sized practices from unfunded mandates that require them to purchase health IT software, services or infrastructure to support data exchanges with little or no clinical value, as determined by the Secretary with input from practicing physicians. Opioid Abuse: ACP supports efforts in trying to improve access to care and treatment for those suffering from mental health and substance abuse disorders. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP supports a comprehensive national policy on prescription drug abuse containing education, monitoring, proper disposal, and enforcement elements. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP is supportive of expanding access to naloxone within the community. ACP also supports the policy proposal known as partial-fill. This would allow a patient to elect to receive a portion of a prescription, and return for either a portion of, or the remainder of the prescription, if the pain persists, up to a 30-day maximum. Urged lawmakers to include language in the final House opioids legislative package to ensure healthcare providers who are engaged in population health initiatives have access to the medical records they need, including information on substance use disorders, to effectively and safely treat their patients; Urged lawmakers to reach agreement on a final conference report to the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) that would include: Development of a federal interagency task force to review, modify, and update, as appropriate, best practices for pain management and prescribing pain medication; Grants to states to expand awareness and education of physicians, patients, health care providers regarding the risks associated with the misuse of opioids; A comprehensive Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) to track the dispensing of controlled substances; Increased availability of opioid overdose reversal drugs; Alternatives to incarceration to individuals who misuse opioid drugs and other substances to manage their pain. Medicare Part B Payment Model: ACP provided comments on CMS proposed Part B payment model, including urging CMS to reassess implementing the proposal to change the current ASP+6% payment structure to the proposed ASP+2.5%+$16.80 rate because of the severe negative impact it may have on some physicians and their practices and appropriate patient access to needed medications. Zika: ACP urged lawmakers to pass legislation that would provide the highest possible funding level for research, prevention, control, and treatment of illnesses associated with the Zika virus that is commensurate with the public health emergency that the virus represents. Prescription Drugs: ACP advocated support for lawmakers efforts in preventing some brand-name drug-companies from using statutorily required Food and Drug Administration (FDA) risk and safety programs to stifle other companies development of generic and biosimilar versions of brand-name drugs, specifically through introduction of the CREATES Act of 2016. Urged lawmakers to increase transparency in drug pricing by requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to publically disclose production costs including research and development investments for specific high�cost drugs that the Secretary identifies through regulation; Authorize and appropriate $2.74 billion in discretionary spending for the FDA to expedite, through fast-track approval, new drugs that address unmet medical need in the treatment of a serious or life threatening condition, as well as to address the back-log of pending generic drug applications; Grant authority to the Secretary of HHS to negotiate prescription drug prices with manufacturers for prescription drugs covered under Part D of the Medicare program. Firearms: ACP urged lawmakers to expand background checks on all gun purchases making it more difficult for known or suspected terrorists to purchase firearms; Urged lawmakers to reject a proposal that would allow people who have been involuntarily committed due to severe mental illness to buy a gun immediately after leaving a psychiatric hospital and enable veterans who suffer from severe mental illness, and who are at risk of suicide, to legally buy guns. Chronic Care Management: Urged lawmakers to eliminate the beneficiary co-pay for chronic care management (CCM) services, require reimbursement and coverage of additional codes for more complex CCM services, direct HHS to authorize payment for CCM codes to allow physicians to spend up to 40 minutes with a patient and an additional code that would allow for 60 minutes of treatment for a patient with multiple chronic illnesses. Telemedicine: Urged lawmakers to broadly lift geographic restrictions on telemedicine, facilitate the use of such telehealth services in stroke treatment, and incorporate the use of these services into ACOs, cosponsor bipartisan legislation, Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) For Health Act (the CONNECT For Health Act), H.R. 4442/S. 2484, which would expand the use of telemedicine and remote patient monitoring (RPM) services by physicians to improve care of patients enrolled in Medicare. Mental Health: Urged lawmakers to establish grants, including Innovation and Demonstration grants, to State and local governments, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations for integrating or coordinating physical health, mental health and substance abuse services; Provide a defined portion of grant funding to the effective integration of services to address mental illness and substance abuse within the primary care setting and to expand a workforce trained to integrate behavioral health within the primary care setting. Veterans Affairs: Commented on the VAs proposed rule regarding Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, specifically: Urged the VA to eliminate the proposal to amend the medical regulations within the VA to permit full practice authority for all VA APRNs (which include Certified Nurse Practitioners, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, Clinical Nurse Specialists, and Certified Nurse-Midwives) when they are acting within the scope of their VA employment, thereby broadly preempting applicable state laws that do not grant such authority; Urged the VA to implement alternative approaches that support dynamic clinical care teams rather than by granting full independent practice authority to APRNs.

Client expense: $261,848 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE, Veterans Affairs, Dept of (VA)

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Advocated in support of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), which was enacted in April 2015 and repealed Medicares Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and moved us to a new value-based payment and delivery system under Medicare; Praised members of Congress for the bipartisan effort in finally ending the SGR and for passing H.R. 2; Advocated with CMS on numerous aspects of the MACRA proposed rule, including: proposing a distinctive alternative scoring methodology, developed by ACP, which combines, simplifies, aligns and reduces the complexity of the four reporting categories that will qualify physicians for FFS payment adjustments in 2019; proposing specific alternatives to CMS Advancing Care Information program that is to replace the current Meaningful Use program; proposing additional improvements to simplify the reporting requirements for the Quality, Advancing Care Information and Clinical Practice Improvement categories; urging CMS to immediately create virtual reporting options and to create safe harbors for smaller practices until such options are available; proposing more options and flexibility, instead of a one-size fits all approach, for practices to be certified as Patient-Centered Medical Homes or Patient-Centered Medical Home specialty practices, qualifying them for the highest possible score for the Clinical Practice Improvement Activity reporting category; Proposing four different options for Medical Home practices to qualify as advanced Alternative Payment Models, instead of the single option proposed by CMS, including options to allow PCMHs to qualify without taking financial risk: Advocated with CMS on Patient Relationship Categories and Codes, as required by MACRA, specifically: that CMS work to ensure that patients, families, and the relationship of patients and families with their physicians are at the forefront of the Agencys thinking in the development of both the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Model (APM) pathways; that the implementation of these categories and codes is carried out in a manner that fully considers and minimizes the impact of reporting burden on the participating clinicians and that has appropriate flexibility to allow for learning and improvement in the approach by both the Agency and the clinicians; that CMS use its authority to adjust resource use down from 10 percent in the first performance period by setting resource use at zero and increasing the quality performance category by 10 percent to make up for the difference; that CMS ensures the utmost transparency in how the Agency attributes cost, based on the use of the patient relationship categories and codes, along with the codes for care episodes and patient conditions. Medicare Physician Fee Schedule: Commented to CMS in Sept. 2016 on the proposed rule that included numerous recommendations, including but not limited to: supports the proposed code additions to the list of Medicare approved telehealth services; supports CMS proposal to review the 83 indicated codes and will be involved to the extent possible through the Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) process; recommends CMS seek specific direction on how to revise and improve on the policies related to End-Stage Renal Disease home dialysis; recommends the use of CPT code 99024 (postoperative follow-up visit, normally included in the surgical package, to indicate that an evaluation and management (E/M) service was performed during a postoperative period for a reason(s) related to the original procedure) to identify the number of postoperative visits associated with a surgical procedure; urges CMS to hold clinicians providing global surgical services to the same documentation standards and guidelines as clinicians performing E/M services when providing a visit. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). In the 114th Congress, advocated for S.1148/H.R.2124 and H.R. 1117-to strategically increase the number of GME training positions in primary care specialties (including internal medicine) and other specialties facing shortages. Urged lawmakers to combine DGME and IME into a single, more functional payment program, and broaden the GME financing structure to include all payers; Allocate GME funds transparently and specifically to activities that further the educational mission of teaching and training residents and fellows with input from practicing clinicians and in collaboration with their professional organizations FY2017 Appropriations: Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ and Patient Centered Outcome Research Trust Fund, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Under the Affordable Care Act, advocated to ensure that people residing in states with health insurance marketplaces operated by the federal government do not lose their premium subsidies in the event that the Supreme Court rules in favor of the petitioners in the King versus Burwell case. Congress should not make changes in the ACA that would result in more uninsured persons or weaken consumer protections. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106 in the 113th Congress), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services.. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201 (113th Congress), The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577 (113th Congress), the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487 (113th Congress), the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013 (113th Congress). Health Information Technology: Urged support for H.R. 3309, the Further Flexibility in Health Information Technology (HIT) Reorting and Advancing Interoperability Act (Flex-IT 2 Act); Advocated that CMS pause the implementation of Stage 3 meaningful userequirements until the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) is ready to be implemented, and shorten the reporting period for the EHR Incentive Payment Programs from twelve months each year to three months. H.R. 3309 would also provide the Secretary of HHS greater flexibility to change, suspend, or revoke meaningful use criteria if the requirements are not consistent with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) that was signed into law last year. Urged lawmakers to require the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) to develop and implement national EHR interoperability standards with direct input from practicing clinicians on the necessary data elements for care delivery, quality improvement and reporting, including the need for a narrative that provides the context of the care needed; Exempt clinicians in small/medium-sized practices from unfunded mandates that require them to purchase health IT software, services or infrastructure to support data exchanges with little or no clinical value, as determined by the Secretary with input from practicing physicians. Opioid Abuse: ACP supports efforts in trying to improve access to care and treatment for those suffering from mental health and substance abuse disorders. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP supports a comprehensive national policy on prescription drug abuse containing education, monitoring, proper disposal, and enforcement elements. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP is supportive of expanding access to naloxone within the community. ACP also supports the policy proposal known as partial-fill. This would allow a patient to elect to receive a portion of a prescription, and return for either a portion of, or the remainder of the prescription, if the pain persists, up to a 30-day maximum. Urged lawmakers to include language in the final House opioids legislative package to ensure healthcare providers who are engaged in population health initiatives have access to the medical records they need, including information on substance use disorders, to effectively and safely treat their patients; Urged lawmakers to reach agreement on a final conference report to the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) that would include: Development of a federal interagency task force to review, modify, and update, as appropriate, best practices for pain management and prescribing pain medication; Grants to states to expand awareness and education of physicians, patients, health care providers regarding the risks associated with the misuse of opioids; A comprehensive Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) to track the dispensing of controlled substances; Increased availability of opioid overdose reversal drugs; Alternatives to incarceration to individuals who misuse opioid drugs and other substances to manage their pain. Medicare Part B Payment Model: ACP provided comments on CMS proposed Part B payment model, including urging CMS to reassess implementing the proposal to change the current ASP+6% payment structure to the proposed ASP+2.5%+$16.80 rate because of the severe negative impact it may have on some physicians and their practices and appropriate patient access to needed medications. Zika: ACP urged lawmakers to pass legislation that would provide the highest possible funding level for research, prevention, control, and treatment of illnesses associated with the Zika virus that is commensurate with the public health emergency that the virus represents. Prescription Drugs: ACP advocated support for lawmakers efforts in preventing some brand-name drug-companies from using statutorily required Food and Drug Administration (FDA) risk and safety programs to stifle other companies development of generic and biosimilar versions of brand-name drugs, specifically through introduction of the CREATES Act of 2016. Urged lawmakers to increase transparency in drug pricing by requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to publically disclose production costs including research and development investments for specific high�cost drugs that the Secretary identifies through regulation; Authorize and appropriate $2.74 billion in discretionary spending for the FDA to expedite, through fast-track approval, new drugs that address unmet medical need in the treatment of a serious or life threatening condition, as well as to address the back-log of pending generic drug applications; Grant authority to the Secretary of HHS to negotiate prescription drug prices with manufacturers for prescription drugs covered under Part D of the Medicare program. Firearms: ACP urged lawmakers to expand background checks on all gun purchases making it more difficult for known or suspected terrorists to purchase firearms; Urged lawmakers to reject a proposal that would allow people who have been involuntarily committed due to severe mental illness to buy a gun immediately after leaving a psychiatric hospital and enable veterans who suffer from severe mental illness, and who are at risk of suicide, to legally buy guns. Chronic Care Management: Urged lawmakers to eliminate the beneficiary co-pay for chronic care management (CCM) services, require reimbursement and coverage of additional codes for more complex CCM services, direct HHS to authorize payment for CCM codes to allow physicians to spend up to 40 minutes with a patient and an additional code that would allow for 60 minutes of treatment for a patient with multiple chronic illnesses. Telemedicine: Urged lawmakers to broadly lift geographic restrictions on telemedicine, facilitate the use of such telehealth services in stroke treatment, and incorporate the use of these services into ACOs, cosponsor bipartisan legislation, Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) For Health Act (the CONNECT For Health Act), H.R. 4442/S. 2484, which would expand the use of telemedicine and remote patient monitoring (RPM) services by physicians to improve care of patients enrolled in Medicare. Mental Health: Urged lawmakers to establish grants, including Innovation and Demonstration grants, to State and local governments, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations for integrating or coordinating physical health, mental health and substance abuse services; Provide a defined portion of grant funding to the effective integration of services to address mental illness and substance abuse within the primary care setting and to expand a workforce trained to integrate behavioral health within the primary care setting. Veterans Affairs: Commented on the VAs proposed rule regarding Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, specifically: Urged the VA to eliminate the proposal to amend the medical regulations within the VA to permit full practice authority for all VA APRNs (which include Certified Nurse Practitioners, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, Clinical Nurse Specialists, and Certified Nurse-Midwives) when they are acting within the scope of their VA employment, thereby broadly preempting applicable state laws that do not grant such authority; Urged the VA to implement alternative approaches that support dynamic clinical care teams rather than by granting full independent practice authority to APRNs.

Client expense: $87,998 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE, Veterans Affairs, Dept of (VA)

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Advocated in support of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), which was enacted in April 2015 and repealed Medicares Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and moved us to a new value-based payment and delivery system under Medicare; Praised members of Congress for the bipartisan effort in finally ending the SGR and for passing H.R. 2; Advocated with CMS on numerous aspects of the MACRA proposed rule, including: proposing a distinctive alternative scoring methodology, developed by ACP, which combines, simplifies, aligns and reduces the complexity of the four reporting categories that will qualify physicians for FFS payment adjustments in 2019; proposing specific alternatives to CMS Advancing Care Information program that is to replace the current Meaningful Use program; proposing additional improvements to simplify the reporting requirements for the Quality, Advancing Care Information and Clinical Practice Improvement categories; urging CMS to immediately create virtual reporting options and to create safe harbors for smaller practices until such options are available; proposing more options and flexibility, instead of a one-size fits all approach, for practices to be certified as Patient-Centered Medical Homes or Patient-Centered Medical Home specialty practices, qualifying them for the highest possible score for the Clinical Practice Improvement Activity reporting category; Proposing four different options for Medical Home practices to qualify as advanced Alternative Payment Models, instead of the single option proposed by CMS, including options to allow PCMHs to qualify without taking financial risk. Medicare Physician Fee Schedule: Commented to CMS in Sept. 2015 on the proposed rule that included numerous recommendations, including but not limited to: Urged CMS to conduct physician practice expense to validate the practice expense component of Relative Value Units; There be a standard resource-based relative value scale update committee survey to determine the work and direct practice expense of moderate sedation; CMS use the additional time from the delay in collecting data on global periods to develop a methodology to fairly re-allocate malpractice RVUs for services converting from a 90- or 10-day to a zero-day global period; CMS maintain an objective and transparent formal appeals process that is consistently applied and open to any organizations that would like to comment; CMS investigate the adequacy of payment for physician services that typically take place outside of a face-to-face patient encounter; that the Collaborative Care Model be implemented through a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Demonstration and be rapidly expanded within Medicare through the Secretarys authority based upon the results and learnings of this demonstration. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). In the 114th Congress, advocated for S.1148/H.R.2124 and H.R. 1117-to strategically increase the number of GME training positions in primary care specialties (including internal medicine) and other specialties facing shortages. Urged lawmakers to combine DGME and IME into a single, more functional payment program, and broaden the GME financing structure to include all payers; Allocate GME funds transparently and specifically to activities that further the educational mission of teaching and training residents and fellows with input from practicing clinicians and in collaboration with their professional organizations FY2017 Appropriations: Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ and Patient Centered Outcome Research Trust Fund, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Under the Affordable Care Act, advocated to ensure that people residing in states with health insurance marketplaces operated by the federal government do not lose their premium subsidies in the event that the Supreme Court rules in favor of the petitioners in the King versus Burwell case. Congress should not make changes in the ACA that would result in more uninsured persons or weaken consumer protections. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106 in the 113th Congress), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201 (113th Congress), The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577 (113th Congress), the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487 (113th Congress), the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013 (113th Congress). Health Information Technology: Urged support for H.R. 3309, the Further Flexibility in Health Information Technology (HIT) Reporting and Advancing Interoperability Act (Flex-IT 2 Act); Advocated that CMS pause the implementation of Stage 3 meaningful use requirements until the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) is ready to be implemented, and shorten the reporting period for the EHR Incentive Payment Programs from twelve months each year to three months. H.R. 3309 would also provide the Secretary of HHS greater flexibility to change, suspend, or revoke meaningful use criteria if the requirements are not consistent with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) that was signed into law earlier this year. Urged lawmakers to require the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) to develop and implement national EHR interoperability standards with direct input from practicing clinicians on the necessary data elements for care delivery, quality improvement and reporting, including the need for a narrative that provides the context of the care needed; Exempt clinicians in small/medium-sized practices from unfunded mandates that require them to purchase health IT software, services or infrastructure to support data exchanges with little or no clinical value, as determined by the Secretary with input from practicing physicians. Opioid Abuse: ACP supports efforts in trying to improve access to care and treatment for those suffering from mental health and substance abuse disorders. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP supports a comprehensive national policy on prescription drug abuse containing education, monitoring, proper disposal, and enforcement elements. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP is supportive of expanding access to naloxone within the community. ACP also supports the policy proposal known as partial-fill. This would allow a patient to elect to receive a portion of a prescription, and return for either a portion of, or the remainder of the prescription, if the pain persists, up to a 30-day maximum. Urged lawmakers to include language in the final House opioids legislative package to ensure healthcare providers who are engaged in population health initiatives have access to the medical records they need, including information on substance use disorders, to effectively and safely treat their patients; Urged lawmakers to reach agreement on a final conference report to the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) that would include: Development of a federal interagency task force to review, modify, and update, as appropriate, best practices for pain management and prescribing pain medication; Grants to states to expand awareness and education of physicians, patients, health care providers regarding the risks associated with the misuse of opioids; A comprehensive Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) to track the dispensing of controlled substances; Increased availability of opioid overdose reversal drugs; Alternatives to incarceration to individuals who misuse opioid drugs and other substances to manage their pain. Site-Neutral Payments: ACP provided feedback to Congress on Section 603, Treatment of Off-Campus Outpatient Departments of a Provider, as included in the recently-enacted Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA). ACP advocated to expand Section 603 to encompass all outpatient off-campus facilities, not just those HOPDs that are built or purchased after the November 2nd enactment date. Medicare Part B Payment Model: ACP provided comments on CMS proposed Part B payment model, including urging CMS to reassess implementing the proposal to change the current ASP+6% payment structure to the proposed ASP+2.5%+$16.80 rate because of the severe negative impact it may have on some physicians and their practices and appropriate patient access to needed medications. Zika: ACP urged lawmakers to pass legislation that would provide the highest possible funding level for research, prevention, control, and treatment of illnesses associated with the Zika virus that is commensurate with the public health emergency that the virus represents. Prescription Drugs: ACP advocated support for lawmakers efforts in preventing some brand-name drug-companies from using statutorily required Food and Drug Administration (FDA) risk and safety programs to stifle other companies development of generic and biosimilar versions of brand-name drugs, specifically through introduction of the CREATES Act of 2016. Urged lawmakers to increase transparency in drug pricing by requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to publically disclose production costs including research and development investments for specific high�cost drugs that the Secretary identifies through regulation; Authorize and appropriate $2.74 billion in discretionary spending for the FDA to expedite, through fast-track approval, new drugs that address unmet medical need in the treatment of a serious or life threatening condition, as well as to address the back-log of pending generic drug applications; Grant authority to the Secretary of HHS to negotiate prescription drug prices with manufacturers for prescription drugs covered under Part D of the Medicare program. Firearms: ACP urged lawmakers to expand background checks on all gun purchases making it more difficult for known or suspected terrorists to purchase firearms; Urged lawmakers to reject a proposal that would allow people who have been involuntarily committed due to severe mental illness to buy a gun immediately after leaving a psychiatric hospital and enable veterans who suffer from severe mental illness, and who are at risk of suicide, to legally buy guns. Chronic Care Management: Urged lawmakers to eliminate the beneficiary co-pay for chronic care management (CCM) services, require reimbursement and coverage of additional codes for more complex CCM services, direct HHS to authorize payment for CCM codes to allow physicians to spend up to 40 minutes with a patient and an additional code that would allow for 60 minutes of treatment for a patient with multiple chronic illnesses. Telemedicine: Urged lawmakers to broadly lift geographic restrictions on telemedicine, facilitate the use of such telehealth services in stroke treatment, and incorporate the use of these services into ACOs, cosponsor bipartisan legislation, Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) For Health Act (the CONNECT For Health Act), H.R. 4442/S. 2484, which would expand the use of telemedicine and remote patient monitoring (RPM) services by physicians to improve care of patients enrolled in Medicare. Mental Health: Urged lawmakers to establish grants, including Innovation and Demonstration grants, to State and local governments, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations for integrating or coordinating physical health, mental health and substance abuse services; Provide a defined portion of grant funding to the effective integration of services to address mental illness and substance abuse within the primary care setting and to expand a workforce trained to integrate behavioral health within the primary care setting.

Client expense: $106,207 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Advocated in support of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), which was enacted in April 2015 and repealed Medicares Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and moved us to a new value-based payment and delivery system under Medicare; Praised members of Congress for the bipartisan effort in finally ending the SGR and for passing H.R. 2; Advocated with CMS on numerous aspects of the MACRA proposed rule, including: proposing a distinctive alternative scoring methodology, developed by ACP, which combines, simplifies, aligns and reduces the complexity of the four reporting categories that will qualify physicians for FFS payment adjustments in 2019; proposing specific alternatives to CMS Advancing Care Information program that is to replace the current Meaningful Use program; proposing additional improvements to simplify the reporting requirements for the Quality, Advancing Care Information and Clinical Practice Improvement categories; urging CMS to immediately create virtual reporting options and to create safe harbors for smaller practices until such options are available; proposing more options and flexibility, instead of a one-size fits all approach, for practices to be certified as Patient-Centered Medical Homes or Patient-Centered Medical Home specialty practices, qualifying them for the highest possible score for the Clinical Practice Improvement Activity reporting category; Proposing four different options for Medical Home practices to qualify as advanced Alternative Payment Models, instead of the single option proposed by CMS, including options to allow PCMHs to qualify without taking financial risk. Medicare Physician Fee Schedule: Commented to CMS in Sept. 2015 on the proposed rule that included numerous recommendations, including but not limited to: Urged CMS to conduct physician practice expense to validate the practice expense component of Relative Value Units; There be a standard resource-based relative value scale update committee survey to determine the work and direct practice expense of moderate sedation; CMS use the additional time from the delay in collecting data on global periods to develop a methodology to fairly re-allocate malpractice RVUs for services converting from a 90- or 10-day to a zero-day global period; CMS maintain an objective and transparent formal appeals process that is consistently applied and open to any organizations that would like to comment; CMS investigate the adequacy of payment for physician services that typically take place outside of a face-to-face patient encounter; that the Collaborative Care Model be implemented through a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Demonstration and be rapidly expanded within Medicare through the Secretarys authority based upon the results and learnings of this demonstration. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). In the 114th Congress, advocated for S.1148/H.R.2124 and H.R. 1117-to strategically increase the number of GME training positions in primary care specialties (including internal medicine) and other specialties facing shortages. Urged lawmakers to combine DGME and IME into a single, more functional payment program, and broaden the GME financing structure to include all payers; Allocate GME funds transparently and specifically to activities that further the educational mission of teaching and training residents and fellows with input from practicing clinicians and in collaboration with their professional organizations. FY2017 Appropriations: Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ and Patient Centered Outcome Research Trust Fund, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Under the Affordable Care Act, advocated to ensure that people residing in states with health insurance marketplaces operated by the federal government do not lose their premium subsidies in the event that the Supreme Court rules in favor of the petitioners in the King versus Burwell case. Congress should not make changes in the ACA that would result in more uninsured persons or weaken consumer protections. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106 in the 113th Congress), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201 (113th Congress), The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577 (113th Congress), the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487 (113th Congress), the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013 (113th Congress). Health Information Technology: Urged support for H.R. 3309, the Further Flexibility in Health Information Technology (HIT) Reporting and Advancing Interoperability Act (Flex-IT 2 Act); Advocated that CMS pause the implementation of Stage 3 meaningful use requirements until the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) is ready to be implemented, and shorten the reporting period for the EHR Incentive Payment Programs from twelve months each year to three months. H.R. 3309 would also provide the Secretary of HHS greater flexibility to change, suspend, or revoke meaningful use criteria if the requirements are not consistent with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) that was signed into law earlier this year. Urged lawmakers to require the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) to develop and implement national EHR interoperability standards with direct input from practicing clinicians on the necessary data elements for care delivery, quality improvement and reporting, including the need for a narrative that provides the context of the care needed; Exempt clinicians in small/medium-sized practices from unfunded mandates that require them to purchase health IT software, services or infrastructure to support data exchanges with little or no clinical value, as determined by the Secretary with input from practicing physicians. Opioid Abuse: ACP supports efforts in trying to improve access to care and treatment for those suffering from mental health and substance abuse disorders. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP supports a comprehensive national policy on prescription drug abuse containing education, monitoring, proper disposal, and enforcement elements. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP is supportive of expanding access to naloxone within the community. ACP also supports the policy proposal known as partial-fill. This would allow a patient to elect to receive a portion of a prescription, and return for either a portion of, or the remainder of the prescription, if the pain persists, up to a 30-day maximum. Urged lawmakers to include language in the final House opioids legislative package to ensure healthcare providers who are engaged in population health initiatives have access to the medical records they need, including information on substance use disorders, to effectively and safely treat their patients; Urged lawmakers to reach agreement on a final conference report to the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) that would include: Development of a federal interagency task force to review, modify, and update, as appropriate, best practices for pain management and prescribing pain medication; Grants to states to expand awareness and education of physicians, patients, health care providers regarding the risks associated with the misuse of opioids; A comprehensive Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) to track the dispensing of controlled substances; Increased availability of opioid overdose reversal drugs; Alternatives to incarceration to individuals who misuse opioid drugs and other substances to manage their pain. Site-Neutral Payments: ACP provided feedback to Congress on Section 603, Treatment of Off-Campus Outpatient Departments of a Provider, as included in the recently-enacted Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA). ACP advocated to expand Section 603 to encompass all outpatient off-campus facilities, not just those HOPDs that are built or purchased after the November 2nd enactment date. Medicare Part B Payment Model: ACP provided comments on CMS proposed Part B payment model, including urging CMS to reassess implementing the proposal to change the current ASP+6% payment structure to the proposed ASP+2.5%+$16.80 rate because of the severe negative impact it may have on some physicians and their practices and appropriate patient access to needed medications. Zika: ACP urged lawmakers to pass legislation that would provide the highest possible funding level for research, prevention, control, and treatment of illnesses associated with the Zika virus that is commensurate with the public health emergency that the virus represents. Prescription Drugs: ACP advocated support for lawmakers efforts in preventing some brand-name drug-companies from using statutorily required Food and Drug Administration (FDA) risk and safety programs to stifle other companies development of generic and biosimilar versions of brand-name drugs, specifically through introduction of the CREATES Act of 2016. Urged lawmakers to increase transparency in drug pricing by requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to publically disclose production costs including research and development investments for specific high�cost drugs that the Secretary identifies through regulation; Authorize and appropriate $2.74 billion in discretionary spending for the FDA to expedite, through fast-track approval, new drugs that address unmet medical need in the treatment of a serious or life threatening condition, as well as to address the back-log of pending generic drug applications; Grant authority to the Secretary of HHS to negotiate prescription drug prices with manufacturers for prescription drugs covered under Part D of the Medicare program. Firearms: ACP urged lawmakers to expand background checks on all gun purchases making it more difficult for known or suspected terrorists to purchase firearms; Urged lawmakers to reject a proposal that would allow people who have been involuntarily committed due to severe mental illness to buy a gun immediately after leaving a psychiatric hospital and enable veterans who suffer from severe mental illness, and who are at risk of suicide, to legally buy guns. Chronic Care Management: Urged lawmakers to eliminate the beneficiary co-pay for chronic care management (CCM) services, require reimbursement and coverage of additional codes for more complex CCM services, direct HHS to authorize payment for CCM codes to allow physicians to spend up to 40 minutes with a patient and an additional code that would allow for 60 minutes of treatment for a patient with multiple chronic illnesses. Telemedicine: Urged lawmakers to broadly lift geographic restrictions on telemedicine, facilitate the use of such telehealth services in stroke treatment, and incorporate the use of these services into ACOs, cosponsor bipartisan legislation, Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) For Health Act (the CONNECT For Health Act), H.R. 4442/S. 2484, which would expand the use of telemedicine and remote patient monitoring (RPM) services by physicians to improve care of patients enrolled in Medicare. Mental Health: Urged lawmakers to establish grants, including Innovation and Demonstration grants, to State and local governments, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations for integrating or coordinating physical health, mental health and substance abuse services; Provide a defined portion of grant funding to the effective integration of services to address mental illness and substance abuse within the primary care setting and to expand a workforce trained to integrate behavioral health within the primary care setting.

Client expense: $319,651 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Advocated in support of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which was enacted in April 2015 and repealed Medicares Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and moved us to a new value-based payment and delivery system under Medicare; Praised members of Congress for the bipartisan effort in finally ending the SGR and for passing H.R. 2. Medicare Physician Fee Schedule: Commented to CMS in Sept. 2015 on the proposed rule that included numerous recommendations, including but not limited to: Urged CMS to conduct physician practice expense to validate the practice expense component of Relative Value Units; There be a standard resource-based relative value scale update committee survey to determine the work and direct practice expense of moderate sedation; CMS use the additional time from the delay in collecting data on global periods to develop a methodology to fairly re-allocate malpractice RVUs for services converting from a 90- or 10-day to a zero-day global period; CMS maintain an objective and transparent formal appeals process that is consistently applied and open to any organizations that would like to comment; CMS investigate the adequacy of payment for physician services that typically take place outside of a face-to-face patient encounter; that the Collaborative Care Model be implemented through a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Demonstration and be rapidly expanded within Medicare through the Secretarys authority based upon the results and learnings of this demonstration. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). In the 114th Congress, advocated for S.1148/H.R.2124 and H.R. 1117-to strategically increase the number of GME training positions in primary care specialties (including internal medicine) and other specialties facing shortages. FY2016 Appropriations: Advocated for the highest level of funding possible for the Labor-HHS-Education bill within the discretionary cap established by the Budget Control Act (BCA); Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ and Patient Centered Outcome Research Trust Fund, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps, Community Health Centers Fund, National Health Care Workforce Commission; Expressed concern to House and Senate leadership over the expiration, at the end of FY2015, of dedicated funding for Community Health Centers, the National Health Service Corps, and Teaching Health Centers; Urged members of Congress to replace sequestration with a balanced approach to deficit reduction that takes into account the deep cuts NDD has already incurred since 2010. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Under the Affordable Care Act, advocated to ensure that people residing in states with health insurance marketplaces operated by the federal government do not lose their premium subsidies in the event that the Supreme Court rules in favor of the petitioners in the King versus Burwell case. Congress should not make changes in the ACA that would result in more uninsured persons or weaken consumer protections. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106 in the 113th Congress), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201 (113th Congress), The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577 (113th Congress), the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487 (113th Congress), the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013 (113th Congress). Medicaid Pay Parity: Advocated for extending for at least two more years, beyond 2014, the Medicaid primary care payment increase, as enacted under the Affordable Care Act, which has only recently been implemented in a majority of states, and (2) including physicians practicing obstetrics and gynecology as qualified specialties, subject to the current eligibility requirement that at least 60 percent of their Medicaid billings are the primary care services as defined by the authorizing legislation, for the purposes of qualifying for the Medicaid primary care increases; Advocated for at least a two-year extension of the Medicaid payment parity provision beyond its 2014 expiration date, namely through the Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act. Health Information Technology: Urged support for H.R. 3309, the Further Flexibility in Health Information Technology (HIT) Reporting and Advancing Interoperability Act (Flex-IT 2 Act); Advocated that CMS pause the implementation of Stage 3 meaningful use requirements until the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) is ready to be implemented, and shorten the reporting period for the EHR Incentive Payment Programs from twelve months each year to three months. H.R. 3309 would also provide the Secretary of HHS greater flexibility to change, suspend, or revoke meaningful use criteria if the requirements are not consistent with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) that was signed into law earlier this year. The Medicare Primary Care Incentive Program: Advocated to extend this program, which began in 2011 and expires in 2015, that pays eligible internal medicine specialists, family physicians, and geriatricians a 10 percent bonus on designated office visits and other primary care services. MACRA: Provided comments to CMS regarding implementation of Alternative Payment Models (APMs) and the Merit-Based Incentive Program (MIPs) under the Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). Comments included: delivery system improvements, avoiding administrative and cost burdens for patients, reducing administrative burdens for physicians, improving current quality and reporting systems, and transparency. Opioid Abuse: ACP supports efforts in trying to improve access to care and treatment for those suffering from mental health and substance abuse disorders. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP supports a comprehensive national policy on prescription drug abuse containing education, monitoring, proper disposal, and enforcement elements. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP is supportive of expanding access to naloxone within the community. ACP also supports the policy proposal known as partial-fill. This would allow a patient to elect to receive a portion of a prescription, and return for either a portion of, or the remainder of the prescription, if the pain persists, up to a 30-day maximum. Site-Neutral Payments: ACP provided feedback to Congress on Section 603, Treatment of Off-Campus Outpatient Departments of a Provider, as included in the recently-enacted Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA). ACP advocated to expand Section 603 to encompass all outpatient off-campus facilities, not just those HOPDs that are built or purchased after the November 2nd enactment date. Stark Law: ACP provided feedback to Congress that the physician self-referral laws need to be revisited in light of the changes in health care delivery and payment reform. ACP is supportive of increasing payment programs that focus on safe, efficient, value-based care delivery and agree that the Stark Self-Referral Laws should not prevent innovation. Tobacco: ACP provided feedback to Congress to express support for the provision in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that gives governments the option to exclude tobacco control measures from Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) challenges. The provision will protect the rights of current and future TPP participating nations to adopt public health measures that reduce tobacco use without fear of facing lengthy and expensive trade disputes initiated by tobacco companies.

Client expense: $223,814 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Advocated in support of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which was enacted in April 2015 and repealed Medicares Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and moved us to a new value-based payment and delivery system under Medicare; Praised members of Congress for the bipartisan effort in finally ending the SGR and for passing H.R. 2. Medicare Physician Fee Schedule: Commented to CMS in Sept. 2015 on the proposed rule that included numerous recommendations, including but not limited to: Urged CMS to conduct physician practice expense to validate the practice expense component of Relative Value Units; There be a standard resource-based relative value scale update committee survey to determine the work and direct practice expense of moderate sedation; CMS use the additional time from the delay in collecting data on global periods to develop a methodology to fairly re-allocate malpractice RVUs for services converting from a 90- or 10-day to a zero-day global period; CMS maintain an objective and transparent formal appeals process that is consistently applied and open to any organizations that would like to comment; CMS investigate the adequacy of payment for physician services that typically take place outside of a face-to-face patient encounter; that the Collaborative Care Model be implemented through a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Demonstration and be rapidly expanded within Medicare through the Secretarys authority based upon the results and learnings of this demonstration. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). In the 114th Congress, advocated for S.1148/H.R.2124 and H.R. 1117-to strategically increase the number of GME training positions in primary care specialties (including internal medicine) and other specialties facing shortages. FY2016 Appropriations: Advocated for the highest level of funding possible for the Labor-HHS-Education bill within the discretionary cap established by the Budget Control Act (BCA); Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ and Patient Centered Outcome Research Trust Fund, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps, Community Health Centers Fund, National Health Care Workforce Commission; Expressed concern to House and Senate leadership over the expiration, at the end of FY2015, of dedicated funding for Community Health Centers, the National Health Service Corps, and Teaching Health Centers; Urged members of Congress to replace sequestration with a balanced approach to deficit reduction that takes into account the deep cuts NDD has already incurred since 2010. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Under the Affordable Care Act, advocated to ensure that people residing in states with health insurance marketplaces operated by the federal government do not lose their premium subsidies in the event that the Supreme Court rules in favor of the petitioners in the King versus Burwell case. Congress should not make changes in the ACA that would result in more uninsured persons or weaken consumer protections. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106 in the 113th Congress), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services.. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201 (113th Congress), The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577 (113th Congress), the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487 (113th Congress), the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013 (113th Congress). Medicaid Pay Parity: Advocated for extending for at least two more years, beyond 2014, the Medicaid primary care payment increase, as enacted under the Affordable Care Act, which has only recently been implemented in a majority of states, and (2) including physicians practicing obstetrics and gynecology as qualified specialties, subject to the current eligibility requirement that at least 60 percent of their Medicaid billings are the primary care services as defined by the authorizing legislation, for the purposes of qualifying for the Medicaid primary care increases; Advocated for at least a two-year extension of the Medicaid payment parity provision beyond its 2014 expiration date, namely through the Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act. Health Information Technology: Urged support for H.R. 3309, the Further Flexibility in Health Information Technology (HIT) Reporting and Advancing Interoperability Act (Flex-IT 2 Act); Advocated that CMS pause the implementation of Stage 3 meaningful use requirements until the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) is ready to be implemented, and shorten the reporting period for the EHR Incentive Payment Programs from twelve months each year to three months. H.R. 3309 would also provide the Secretary of HHS greater flexibility to change, suspend, or revoke meaningful use criteria if the requirements are not consistent with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) that was signed into law earlier this year. The Medicare Primary Care Incentive Program: Advocated to extend this program, which began in 2011 and expires in 2015, that pays eligible internal medicine specialists, family physicians, and geriatricians a 10 percent bonus on designated office visits and other primary care services. MACRA: Provided comments to CMS regarding implementation of Alternative Payment Models (APMs) and the Merit-Based Incentive Program (MIPs) under the Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). Comments included: delivery system improvements, avoiding administrative and cost burdens for patients, reducing administrative burdens for physicians, improving current quality and reporting systems, and transparency. Opioid Abuse: ACP supports efforts in trying to improve access to care and treatment for those suffering from mental health and substance abuse disorders. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP supports a comprehensive national policy on prescription drug abuse containing education, monitoring, proper disposal, and enforcement elements. As contained in S. 2256, Co-Prescribing Saves Lives Act of 2015, ACP is supportive of expanding access to naloxone within the community. ACP also supports the policy proposal known as partial-fill. This would allow a patient to elect to receive a portion of a prescription, and return for either a portion of, or the remainder of the prescription, if the pain persists, up to a 30-day maximum. Site-Neutral Payments: ACP provided feedback to Congress on Section 603, Treatment of Off-Campus Outpatient Departments of a Provider, as included in the recently-enacted Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA). ACP advocated to expand Section 603 to encompass all outpatient off-campus facilities, not just those HOPDs that are built or purchased after the November 2nd enactment date. Stark Law: ACP provided feedback to Congress that the physician self-referral laws need to be revisited in light of the changes in health care delivery and payment reform. ACP is supportive of increasing payment programs that focus on safe, efficient, value-based care delivery and agree that the Stark Self-Referral Laws should not prevent innovation. Tobacco: ACP provided feedback to Congress to express support for the provision in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that gives governments the option to exclude tobacco control measures from Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) challenges. The provision will protect the rights of current and future TPP participating nations to adopt public health measures that reduce tobacco use without fear of facing lengthy and expensive trade disputes initiated by tobacco companies.

Client expense: $105,738 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Advocated in support of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which was enacted in April 2015 and repealed Medicares Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and moved us to a new value-based payment and delivery system under Medicare; Praised members of Congress for the bipartisan effort in finally ending the SGR and for passing H.R. 2. Medicare Physician Fee Schedule: Commented to CMS in Sept. 2015 on the proposed rule that included numerous recommendations, including but not limited to: Urged CMS to conduct physician practice expense to validate the practice expense component of Relative Value Units; There be a standard resource-based relative value scale update committee survey to determine the work and direct practice expense of moderate sedation; CMS use the additional time from the delay in collecting data on global periods to develop a methodology to fairly re-allocate malpractice RVUs for services converting from a 90- or 10-day to a zero-day global period; CMS maintain an objective and transparent formal appeals process that is consistently applied and open to any organizations that would like to comment; CMS investigate the adequacy of payment for physician services that typically take place outside of a face-to-face patient encounter; that the Collaborative Care Model be implemented through a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Demonstration and be rapidly expanded within Medicare through the Secretarys authority based upon the results and learnings of this demonstration. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). In the 114th Congress, advocated for S.1148/H.R.2124 and H.R. 1117-to strategically increase the number of GME training positions in primary care specialties (including internal medicine) and other specialties facing shortages. FY2016 Appropriations: Advocated for the highest level of funding possible for the Labor-HHS-Education bill within the discretionary cap established by the Budget Control Act (BCA); Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ and Patient Centered Outcome Research Trust Fund, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps, Community Health Centers Fund, National Health Care Workforce Commission; Expressed concern to House and Senate leadership over the expiration, at the end of FY2015, of dedicated funding for Community Health Centers, the National Health Service Corps, and Teaching Health Centers; Urged members of Congress to replace sequestration with a balanced approach to deficit reduction that takes into account the deep cuts NDD has already incurred since 2010. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Under the Affordable Care Act, advocated to ensure that people residing in states with health insurance marketplaces operated by the federal government do not lose their premium subsidies in the event that the Supreme Court rules in favor of the petitioners in the King versus Burwell case. Congress should not make changes in the ACA that would result in more uninsured persons or weaken consumer protections. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106 in the 113th Congress), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201 (113th Congress), The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577 (113th Congress), the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487 (113th Congress), the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013 (113th Congress). Medicaid Pay Parity: Advocated for extending for at least two more years, beyond 2014, the Medicaid primary care payment increase, as enacted under the Affordable Care Act, which has only recently been implemented in a majority of states, and (2) including physicians practicing obstetrics and gynecology as qualified specialties, subject to the current eligibility requirement that at least 60 percent of their Medicaid billings are the primary care services as defined by the authorizing legislation, for the purposes of qualifying for the Medicaid primary care increases; Advocated for at least a two-year extension of the Medicaid payment parity provision beyond its 2014 expiration date, namely through the Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act. Health Information Technology: Urged support for H.R. 3309, the Further Flexibility in Health Information Technology (HIT) Reporting and Advancing Interoperability Act (Flex-IT 2 Act); Advocated that CMS pause the implementation of Stage 3 meaningful use requirements until the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) is ready to be implemented, and shorten the reporting period for the EHR Incentive Payment Programs from twelve months each year to three months. H.R. 3309 would also provide the Secretary of HHS greater flexibility to change, suspend, or revoke meaningful use criteria if the requirements are not consistent with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) that was signed into law earlier this year. The Medicare Primary Care Incentive Program: Advocated to extend this program, which began in 2011 and expires in 2015, that pays eligible internal medicine specialists, family physicians, and geriatricians a 10 percent bonus on designated office visits and other primary care services. MACRA: Provided comments to CMS regarding implementation of Alternative Payment Models (APMs) and the Merit-Based Incentive Program (MIPs) under the Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). Comments included: delivery system improvements, avoiding administrative and cost burdens for patients, reducing administrative burdens for physicians, improving current quality and reporting systems, and transparency. Federal Firearms Research: Advocated for lifting the ban on gun research by CDC (and adequate funding for NIH gun-related research). Clinical Labs: Commented to CMS on Medicares Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory Tests Payment System. Recommendations included: Extending the timeline for implementation & allowing six months before initial reporting, retain the proposed POL low expenditure threshold exclusion, reduce data collection period from 12 months to 3 months. Affordable Care Act Benefit and Payment Parameters: Advocated to CMS that plans offered through health exchanges be required to abide by Federally-Facilitated Marketplace Standards related to data submission, network adequacy, and essential community providers; Advocated that Qualified Health Plans provide a prescription drug plan formulary exception process that provides a pathway to access clinically appropriate drugs not covered by the health plan; Advocated for more stringent quantitative network adequacy criteria. Medicares Physician Fee Schedule: Urged CMS to conduct a new Physician Practice Expense Information Survey to validate the Practice Expense (PE) of the Relative Value Units (RVUs); Advocated there be a standard Resource-Based Relative Value Scale Update Committee survey to determine the work and direct PE inputs of moderate sedation; Use the additional time from the delay in collecting data on global periods to develop a methodology to fairly reallocate malpractice RVUs for services converting from a 90 or 10-day to a zero-day global period.

Client expense: $225,757 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Advocated in support of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which was enacted in April 2015 and repealed Medicares Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and moved us to a new value-based payment and delivery system under Medicare; Praised members of Congress for the bipartisan effort in finally ending the SGR and for passing H.R. 2. Medicare Physician Fee Schedule: Commented to CMS in Sept. 2015 on the proposed rule that included numerous recommendations, including but not limited to: Urged CMS to conduct physician practice expense to validate the practice expense component of Relative Value Units; There be a standard resource-based relative value scale update committee survey to determine the work and direct practice expense of moderate sedation; CMS use the additional time from the delay in collecting data on global periods to develop a methodology to fairly re-allocate malpractice RVUs for services converting from a 90- or 10-day to a zero-day global period; CMS maintain an objective and transparent formal appeals process that is consistently applied and open to any organizations that would like to comment; CMS investigate the adequacy of payment for physician services that typically take place outside of a face-to-face patient encounter; that the Collaborative Care Model be implemented through a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Demonstration and be rapidly expanded within Medicare through the Secretarys authority based upon the results and learnings of this demonstration. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). In the 114th Congress, advocated for S.1148/H.R.2124 and H.R. 1117-to strategically increase the number of GME training positions in primary care specialties (including internal medicine) and other specialties facing shortages. FY2016 Appropriations: Advocated for the highest level of funding possible for the Labor-HHS-Education bill within the discretionary cap established by the Budget Control Act (BCA); Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ and Patient Centered Outcome Research Trust Fund, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps, Community Health Centers Fund, National Health Care Workforce Commission; Expressed concern to House and Senate leadership over the expiration, at the end of FY2015, of dedicated funding for Community Health Centers, the National Health Service Corps, and Teaching Health Centers; Urged members of Congress to replace sequestration with a balanced approach to deficit reduction that takes into account the deep cuts NDD has already incurred since 2010. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Under the Affordable Care Act, advocated to ensure that people residing in states with health insurance marketplaces operated by the federal government do not lose their premium subsidies in the event that the Supreme Court rules in favor of the petitioners in the King versus Burwell case. Congress should not make changes in the ACA that would result in more uninsured persons or weaken consumer protections. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106 in the 113th Congress), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201 (113th Congress), The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577 (113th Congress), the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487 (113th Congress), the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013 (113th Congress). Medicaid Pay Parity: Advocated for extending for at least two more years, beyond 2014, the Medicaid primary care payment increase, as enacted under the Affordable Care Act, which has only recently been implemented in a majority of states, and (2) including physicians practicing obstetrics and gynecology as qualified specialties, subject to the current eligibility requirement that at least 60 percent of their Medicaid billings are the primary care services as defined by the authorizing legislation, for the purposes of qualifying for the Medicaid primary care increases; Advocated for at least a two-year extension of the Medicaid payment parity provision beyond its 2014 expiration date, namely through the Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act. Health Information Technology: Urged support for H.R. 3309, the Further Flexibility in Health Information Technology (HIT) Reporting and Advancing Interoperability Act (Flex-IT 2 Act); Advocated that CMS pause the implementation of Stage 3 meaningful use requirements until the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) is ready to be implemented, and shorten the reporting period for the EHR Incentive Payment Programs from twelve months each year to three months. H.R. 3309 would also provide the Secretary of HHS greater flexibility to change, suspend, or revoke meaningful use criteria if the requirements are not consistent with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) that was signed into law earlier this year. The Medicare Primary Care Incentive Program: Advocated to extend this program, which began in 2011 and expires in 2015, that pays eligible internal medicine specialists, family physicians, and geriatricians a 10 percent bonus on designated office visits and other primary care services. MACRA: Provided comments to CMS regarding implementation of Alternative Payment Models (APMs) and the Merit-Based Incentive Program (MIPs) under the Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). Comments included: delivery system improvements, avoiding administrative and cost burdens for patients, reducing administrative burdens for physicians, improving current quality and reporting systems, and transparency. Federal Firearms Research: Advocated for lifting the ban on gun research by CDC (and adequate funding for NIH gun-related research). Clinical Labs: Commented to CMS on Medicares Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory Tests Payment System. Recommendations included: Extending the timeline for implementation & allowing six months before initial reporting, retain the proposed POL low expenditure threshold exclusion, reduce data collection period from 12 months to 3 months. Affordable Care Act Benefit and Payment Parameters: Advocated to CMS that plans offered through health exchanges be required to abide by Federally-Facilitated Marketplace Standards related to data submission, network adequacy, and essential community providers; Advocated that Qualified Health Plans provide a prescription drug plan formulary exception process that provides a pathway to access clinically appropriate drugs not covered by the health plan; Advocated for more stringent quantitative network adequacy criteria. Medicares Physician Fee Schedule: Urged CMS to conduct a new Physician Practice Expense Information Survey to validate the Practice Expense (PE) of the Relative Value Units (RVUs); Advocated there be a standard Resource-Based Relative Value Scale Update Committee survey to determine the work and direct PE inputs of moderate sedation; Use the additional time from the delay in collecting data on global periods to develop a methodology to fairly reallocate malpractice RVUs for services converting from a 90 or 10-day to a zero-day global period.

Client expense: $106,426 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Advocated in support of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which was enacted in April 2015 and repealed Medicares Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and moved us to a new value-based payment and delivery system under Medicare; Praised members of Congress for the bipartisan effort in finally ending the SGR and for passing H.R. 2. Medicare Physician Fee Schedule: Commented to CMS in Sept. 2015 on the proposed rule that included numerous recommendations, including but not limited to: Urged CMS to conduct physician practice expense to validate the practice expense component of Relative Value Units; There be a standard resource-based relative value scale update committee survey to determine the work and direct practice expense of moderate sedation; CMS use the additional time from the delay in collecting data on global periods to develop a methodology to fairly re-allocate malpractice RVUs for services converting from a 90- or 10-day to a zero-day global period; CMS maintain an objective and transparent formal appeals process that is consistently applied and open to any organizations that would like to comment; CMS investigate the adequacy of payment for physician services that typically take place outside of a face-to-face patient encounter; that the Collaborative Care Model be implemented through a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Demonstration and be rapidly expanded within Medicare through the Secretarys authority based upon the results and learnings of this demonstration. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). In the 114th Congress, advocated for S.1148/H.R.2124 and H.R. 1117-to strategically increase the number of GME training positions in primary care specialties (including internal medicine) and other specialties facing shortages. FY2016 Appropriations: Advocated for the highest level of funding possible for the Labor-HHS-Education bill within the discretionary cap established by the Budget Control Act (BCA); Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ and Patient Centered Outcome Research Trust Fund, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps, Community Health Centers Fund, National Health Care Workforce Commission; Expressed concern to House and Senate leadership over the expiration, at the end of FY2015, of dedicated funding for Community Health Centers, the National Health Service Corps, and Teaching Health Centers; Urged members of Congress to replace sequestration with a balanced approach to deficit reduction that takes into account the deep cuts NDD has already incurred since 2010. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Under the Affordable Care Act, advocated to ensure that people residing in states with health insurance marketplaces operated by the federal government do not lose their premium subsidies in the event that the Supreme Court rules in favor of the petitioners in the King versus Burwell case. Congress should not make changes in the ACA that would result in more uninsured persons or weaken consumer protections. Essential Health Benefits: Commented on the proposed rule regarding essential benefits, actuarial value, and accreditation as issued by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services on November 20, 2012; Advocated that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106 in the 113th Congress), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services.. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201 (113th Congress), The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577 (113th Congress), the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487 (113th Congress), the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013 (113th Congress). Medicaid Pay Parity: Advocated for extending for at least two more years, beyond 2014, the Medicaid primary care payment increase, as enacted under the Affordable Care Act, which has only recently been implemented in a majority of states, and (2) including physicians practicing obstetrics and gynecology as qualified specialties, subject to the current eligibility requirement that at least 60 percent of their Medicaid billings are the primary care services as defined by the authorizing legislation, for the purposes of qualifying for the Medicaid primary care increases; Advocated for at least a two-year extension of the Medicaid payment parity provision beyond its 2014 expiration date, namely through the Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act. Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System proposed rule for FY 2016: ACP commented to CMS specifically on section XV of the rule pertaining to Short Inpatient Hospital Stays; Supported the proposed modification that would broaden the exception criteria to allow determination on a case-by-case basis using supporting clinical documentation by the physician responsible for the care of the beneficiary; Supported a revision to the current medical review strategy for short term hospital stays by requiring that Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) contractors conduct the reviews rather than the Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs); Expressed disappointment that the rule did not more fully address the need for increased beneficiary protections, which would negate or significantly limit adverse financial consequences to beneficiaries who experience stays under observation status, or who have their short inpatient stays denied. Health Information Technology: Urged support for H.R. 3309, the Further Flexibility in Health Information Technology (HIT) Reporting and Advancing Interoperability Act (Flex-IT 2 Act); Advocated that CMS pause the implementation of Stage 3 meaningful use requirements until the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) is ready to be implemented, and shorten the reporting period for the EHR Incentive Payment Programs from twelve months each year to three months. H.R. 3309 would also provide the Secretary of HHS greater flexibility to change, suspend, or revoke meaningful use criteria if the requirements are not consistent with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) that was signed into law earlier this year. The Medicare Primary Care Incentive Program: Advocated to extend this program, which began in 2011 and expires in 2015, that pays eligible internal medicine specialists, family physicians, and geriatricians a 10 percent bonus on designated office visits and other primary care services.

Client expense: $108,220 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Advocated in support of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which was enacted in April 2015 and repealed Medicares Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and moved us to a new value-based payment and delivery system under Medicare; Praised members of Congress for the bipartisan effort in finally ending the SGR and for passing H.R. 2. Medicare Physician Fee Schedule: Commented to CMS in Sept. 2015 on the proposed rule that included numerous recommendations, including but not limited to: Urged CMS to conduct physician practice expense to validate the practice expense component of Relative Value Units; There be a standard resource-based relative value scale update committee survey to determine the work and direct practice expense of moderate sedation; CMS use the additional time from the delay in collecting data on global periods to develop a methodology to fairly re-allocate malpractice RVUs for services converting from a 90- or 10-day to a zero-day global period; CMS maintain an objective and transparent formal appeals process that is consistently applied and open to any organizations that would like to comment; CMS investigate the adequacy of payment for physician services that typically take place outside of a face-to-face patient encounter; that the Collaborative Care Model be implemented through a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Demonstration and be rapidly expanded within Medicare through the Secretarys authority based upon the results and learnings of this demonstration. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). In the 114th Congress, advocated for S.1148/H.R.2124 and H.R. 1117-to strategically increase the number of GME training positions in primary care specialties (including internal medicine) and other specialties facing shortages. FY2016 Appropriations: Advocated for the highest level of funding possible for the Labor-HHS-Education bill within the discretionary cap established by the Budget Control Act (BCA); Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ and Patient Centered Outcome Research Trust Fund, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps, Community Health Centers Fund, National Health Care Workforce Commission; Expressed concern to House and Senate leadership over the expiration, at the end of FY2015, of dedicated funding for Community Health Centers, the National Health Service Corps, and Teaching Health Centers; Urged members of Congress to replace sequestration with a balanced approach to deficit reduction that takes into account the deep cuts NDD has already incurred since 2010. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. National Health Care Workforce Commission; Expressed concern to House and Senate leadership over the expiration, at the end of FY2015, of dedicated funding for Community Health Centers, the National Health Service Corps, and Teaching Health Centers; Urged members of Congress to replace sequestration with a balanced approach to deficit reduction that takes into account the deep cuts NDD has already incurred since 2010. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Under the Affordable Care Act, advocated to ensure that people residing in states with health insurance marketplaces operated by the federal government do not lose their premium subsidies in the event that the Supreme Court rules in favor of the petitioners in the King versus Burwell case. Congress should not make changes in the ACA that would result in more uninsured persons or weaken consumer protections. Essential Health Benefits: Commented on the proposed rule regarding essential benefits, actuarial value, and accreditation as issued by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services on November 20, 2012; Advocated that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106 in the 113th Congress), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services.. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201 (113th Congress), The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577 (113th Congress), the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487 (113th Congress), the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013 (113th Congress). Medicaid Pay Parity: Advocated for extending for at least two more years, beyond 2014, the Medicaid primary care payment increase, as enacted under the Affordable Care Act, which has only recently been implemented in a majority of states, and (2) including physicians practicing obstetrics and gynecology as qualified specialties, subject to the current eligibility requirement that at least 60 percent of their Medicaid billings are the primary care services as defined by the authorizing legislation, for the purposes of qualifying for the Medicaid primary care increases; Advocated for at least a two-year extension of the Medicaid payment parity provision beyond its 2014 expiration date, namely through the Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act. Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System proposed rule for FY 2016: ACP commented to CMS specifically on section XV of the rule pertaining to Short Inpatient Hospital Stays; Supported the proposed modification that would broaden the exception criteria to allow determination on a case-by-case basis using supporting clinical documentation by the physician responsible for the care of the beneficiary; Supported a revision to the current medical review strategy for short term hospital stays by requiring that Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) contractors conduct the reviews rather than the Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs); Expressed disappointment that the rule did not more fully address the need for increased beneficiary protections, which would negate or significantly limit adverse financial consequences to beneficiaries who experience stays under observation status, or who have their short inpatient stays denied. Health Information Technology: Urged support for H.R. 3309, the Further Flexibility in Health Information Technology (HIT) Reporting and Advancing Interoperability Act (Flex-IT 2 Act); Advocated that CMS pause the implementation of Stage 3 meaningful use requirements until the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) is ready to be implemented, and shorten the reporting period for the EHR Incentive Payment Programs from twelve months each year to three months. H.R. 3309 would also provide the Secretary of HHS greater flexibility to change, suspend, or revoke meaningful use criteria if the requirements are not consistent with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) that was signed into law earlier this year. The Medicare Primary Care Incentive Program: Advocated to extend this program, which began in 2011 and expires in 2015, that pays eligible internal medicine specialists, family physicians, and geriatricians a 10 percent bonus on designated office visits and other primary care services.

Client expense: $246,630 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Increase Medicare Fee Schedule payments to make primary care competitive in the market with other physician career and specialty choices; create a fast track authority to develop and implement new physician payment models that better align payment with effective, efficient, patient-centered care such as the Patient Centered Medical Home; provide a voluntary shared savings program, Accountable Care Organizations, that promotes accountability for services delivered to a defined Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) patient population with the goals of increasing the quality and efficiency of services delivered; provide separate Medicare payment for specific care coordination services provided principally by primary care physicians; revise Medicare budget neutrality rules to recognize the value of primary care in reducing Medicare baseline spending; increase the accuracy of physician work relative value units under the Medicare physician fee schedule; improve the accuracy of practice expense RVUs under the Medicare Fee Schedule; increase Medicare bonus payments for primary care services provided in designated shortage areas; provide stable, positive, predictable updates under Medicares reimbursement formula; and replacing the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula with a long term solution that provides for stable, predictable updates for physicians (H.R. 3961). Urged Congress to enact legislation that would provide stable payments for all physician specialties for at least five years while providing higher updates for undervalued evaluation and management services, require that different payment models (including Patient-Centered Medical Homes) be pilot-tested on a voluntary basis during the five year period of stable payments, and designate a specific transition period for broad adoption of the new models that have been shown to be the most effective based on the pilots. Advocated in support of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which would repeal the SGR formula and move to a new value-based payment and delivery system under Medicare. Urged enactment of the Medicare Physician Payment Innovation Act (H.R. 574), as introduced in Feb. 2013 by Representatives Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) and Joe Heck (R-NV). This legislation would eliminate the SGR once and for all and transition to better payment and delivery systems that are aligned with value. Specifically, H.R. 574 would repeal the SGR formula, provide more than 5 years of stable physician payments, with positive increases for all physician services, and higher payments for primary care, preventive and care coordination services, and establishes a process for practices to transition to new, more effective, models of care by 2018. Advocated for the Patient-Centered Medical Home model should be scaled up for broad Medicare adoption, recognized, through the medical neighborhood concept, that specialty and subspecialty practices, hospitals, and other healthcare professionals and entities that provide treatment to the patient need to be recognized and provided with incentives-both non-financial and financial-for engaging in patient-centered practices that complement and support the efforts of the PCMH to provide high quality, efficient, coordinated care; advocated for ACPs High Value, Cost-Conscious Care Initiative, which includes clinical, public policy, and educational components, designed to help physicians and patients understand the benefits, harms, and costs of an intervention and whether it provides good value, as well as to slow the unsustainable rate of health care cost increases while preserving high-value, high-quality care. Advocated for H.R. 4015/S.2000, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014, legislation introduced on Feb. 6, 2014 to repeal the SGR and transition to a new value-based payment and delivery system; Advocated for extending the Medicare Primary Care Incentive Program beyond its 2015 sunset date. This program, which began in 2011, pays eligible internal medicine specialists, family physicians, and geriatricians a 10 percent bonus on designated office visits and other primary care services. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). In the 114th Congress, advocated for S.1148/H.R.2124 and H.R. 1117-to strategically increase the number of GME training positions in primary care specialties (including internal medicine) and other specialties facing shortages. FY2016 Appropriations: Advocated for the highest level of funding possible for the Labor-HHS-Education bill within the discretionary cap established by the Budget Control Act (BCA); Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ and Patient Centered Outcome Research Trust Fund, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps, Community Health Centers Fund, National Health Care Workforce Commission; Expressed concern to House and Senate leadership over the expiration, at the end of FY2015, of dedicated funding for Community Health Centers, the National Health Service Corps, and Teaching Health Centers. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Under the Affordable Care Act, advocated to ensure that people residing in states with health insurance marketplaces operated by the federal government do not lose their premium subsidies in the event that the Supreme Court rules in favor of the petitioners in the King versus Burwell case. Congress should not make changes in the ACA that would result in more uninsured persons or weaken consumer protections. Essential Health Benefits: Commented on the proposed rule regarding essential benefits, actuarial value, and accreditation as issued by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services on November 20, 2012; Advocated that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106 in the 113th Congress), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services.. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201 (113th Congress), The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577 (113th Congress), the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487 (113th Congress), the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013 (113th Congress). Medicaid Pay Parity: Advocated for extending for at least two more years, beyond 2014, the Medicaid primary care payment increase, as enacted under the Affordable Care Act, which has only recently been implemented in a majority of states, and (2) including physicians practicing obstetrics and gynecology as qualified specialties, subject to the current eligibility requirement that at least 60 percent of their Medicaid billings are the primary care services as defined by the authorizing legislation, for the purposes of qualifying for the Medicaid primary care increases; Advocated for at least a two-year extension of the Medicaid payment parity provision beyond its 2014 expiration date, namely through the Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act. 21st Century Cures: Commented on H.R. 6, the 21st Century Cures Act, which provides broad reforms to help incentive innovation and cures for disease; addresses FDA oversight, increased funding for the National Institutes of Health, immunization, the prescription drug approval process, and reforms to Health Information Technology and Electronic Health Records.

Client expense: $293,841 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Increase Medicare Fee Schedule payments to make primary care competitive in the market with other physician career and specialty choices; create a fast track authority to develop and implement new physician payment models that better align payment with effective, efficient, patient-centered care such as the Patient Centered Medical Home; provide a voluntary shared savings program, Accountable Care Organizations, that promotes accountability for services delivered to a defined Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) patient population with the goals of increasing the quality and efficiency of services delivered; provide separate Medicare payment for specific care coordination services provided principally by primary care physicians; revise Medicare budget neutrality rules to recognize the value of primary care in reducing Medicare baseline spending; increase the accuracy of physician work relative value units under the Medicare physician fee schedule; improve the accuracy of practice expense RVUs under the Medicare Fee Schedule; increase Medicare bonus payments for primary care services provided in designated shortage areas; provide stable, positive, predictable updates under Medicares reimbursement formula; and replacing the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula with a long term solution that provides for stable, predictable updates for physicians (H.R. 3961). Urged Congress to enact legislation that would provide stable payments for all physician specialties for at least five years while providing higher updates for undervalued evaluation and management services, require that different payment models (including Patient-Centered Medical Homes) be pilot-tested on a voluntary basis during the five year period of stable payments, and designate a specific transition period for broad adoption of the new models that have been shown to be the most effective based on the pilots. Advocated in support of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which would repeal the SGR formula and move to a new value-based payment and delivery system under Medicare. Urged enactment of the Medicare Physician Payment Innovation Act (H.R. 574), as introduced in Feb. 2013 by Representatives Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) and Joe Heck (R-NV). This legislation would eliminate the SGR once and for all and transition to better payment and delivery systems that are aligned with value. Specifically, H.R. 574 would repeal the SGR formula, provide more than 5 years of stable physician payments, with positive increases for all physician services, and higher payments for primary care, preventive and care coordination services, and establishes a process for practices to transition to new, more effective, models of care by 2018. Advocated for the Patient-Centered Medical Home model should be scaled up for broad Medicare adoption, recognized, through the medical neighborhood concept, that specialty and subspecialty practices, hospitals, and other healthcare professionals and entities that provide treatment to the patient need to be recognized and provided with incentives-both non-financial and financial-for engaging in patient-centered practices that complement and support the efforts of the PCMH to provide high quality, efficient, coordinated care; advocated for ACPs High Value, Cost-Conscious Care Initiative, which includes clinical, public policy, and educational components, designed to help physicians and patients understand the benefits, harms, and costs of an intervention and whether it provides good value, as well as to slow the unsustainable rate of health care cost increases while preserving high-value, high-quality care. Advocated for H.R. 4015/S.2000, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014, legislation introduced on Feb. 6, 2014 to repeal the SGR and transition to a new value-based payment and delivery system; Advocated for extending the Medicare Primary Care Incentive Program beyond its 2015 sunset date. This program, which began in 2011, pays eligible internal medicine specialists, family physicians, and geriatricians a 10 percent bonus on designated office visits and other primary care services. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). In the 114th Congress, advocated for S.1148/H.R.2124 and H.R. 1117-to strategically increase the number of GME training positions in primary care specialties (including internal medicine) and other specialties facing shortages. FY2016 Appropriations: Advocated for the highest level of funding possible for the Labor-HHS-Education bill within the discretionary cap established by the Budget Control Act (BCA); Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ and Patient Centered Outcome Research Trust Fund, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps, Community Health Centers Fund, National Health Care Workforce Commission; Expressed concern to House and Senate leadership over the expiration, at the end of FY2015, of dedicated funding for Community Health Centers, the National Health Service Corps, and Teaching Health Centers. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Under the Affordable Care Act, advocated to ensure that people residing in states with health insurance marketplaces operated by the federal government do not lose their premium subsidies in the event that the Supreme Court rules in favor of the petitioners in the King versus Burwell case. Congress should not make changes in the ACA that would result in more uninsured persons or weaken consumer protections. Essential Health Benefits: Commented on the proposed rule regarding essential benefits, actuarial value, and accreditation as issued by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services on November 20, 2012; Advocated that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106 in the 113th Congress), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services.. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201 (113th Congress), The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577 (113th Congress), the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487 (113th Congress), the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013 (113th Congress). Medicaid Pay Parity: Advocated for extending for at least two more years, beyond 2014, the Medicaid primary care payment increase, as enacted under the Affordable Care Act, which has only recently been implemented in a majority of states, and (2) including physicians practicing obstetrics and gynecology as qualified specialties, subject to the current eligibility requirement that at least 60 percent of their Medicaid billings are the primary care services as defined by the authorizing legislation, for the purposes of qualifying for the Medicaid primary care increases; Advocated for at least a two-year extension of the Medicaid payment parity provision beyond its 2014 expiration date, namely through the Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act. 21st Century Cures: Commented on H.R. 6, the 21st Century Cures Act, which provides broad reforms to help incentive innovation and cures for disease; addresses FDA oversight, increased funding for the National Institutes of Health, immunization, the prescription drug approval process, and reforms to Health Information Technology and Electronic Health Records.

Client expense: $96,858 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE

Optometric Equity in Medicaid Act, Federal mandates for Medicaid of optometric medical & surgical coverage, all sections SGR - Medicare Physician Payment Reform H.R. 1707, Access to Frontline Health Care Act, all sections H.R. 1741, Truth in Health Marketing Act, all sections H.R. 1190, Protecting Seniors Access to Medicare Act, all sections S. 141, Protecting Seniors Access to Medicare Act, all sections P.L. 111-192, Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010, all sections related to physicians and vision P.L. 111-148 Affordable Care Act, modifications: 1. Reducing regulatory/costly burdens on medical practices - relief from regulatory penalties 2. Preserving patient access to office ancillary testing services 3. Essential Benefits - Children's Vision 4. Independent Payment Advisory Board H.R. 1312, National Health Service Corps Improvement Act Electronic Health Records Improvement Act P.L. 113-54, Drug Quality & Security Act, all sections H.R. 2, Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act Protecting access to Medicare Act (P.L. 113-93) ASC Quality Reporting Program Medicare Advantage Participant Bill of Rights Act (S2552/HR4998), all sections 2015 Physician Schedule Rule, Issues pertaining to clinical data regional/global surgery payments H.R. 270, FlexIT Act

Client expense: $180,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), SENATE

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Increase Medicare Fee Schedule payments to make primary care competitive in the market with other physician career and specialty choices; create a fast track authority to develop and implement new physician payment models that better align payment with effective, efficient, patient-centered care such as the Patient Centered Medical Home; provide a voluntary shared savings program, Accountable Care Organizations, that promotes accountability for services delivered to a defined Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) patient population with the goals of increasing the quality and efficiency of services delivered; provide separate Medicare payment for specific care coordination services provided principally by primary care physicians; revise Medicare budget neutrality rules to recognize the value of primary care in reducing Medicare baseline spending; increase the accuracy of physician work relative value units under the Medicare physician fee schedule; improve the accuracy of practice expense RVUs under the Medicare Fee Schedule; increase Medicare bonus payments for primary care services provided in designated shortage areas; provide stable, positive, predictable updates under Medicares reimbursement formula; and replacing the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula with a long term solution that provides for stable, predictable updates for physicians (H.R. 3961). Urged Congress to enact legislation that would provide stable payments for all physician specialties for at least five years while providing higher updates for undervalued evaluation and management services, require that different payment models (including Patient-Centered Medical Homes) be pilot-tested on a voluntary basis during the five year period of stable payments, and designate a specific transition period for broad adoption of the new models that have been shown to be the most effective based on the pilots. Advocated in support of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which would repeal the SGR formula and move to a new value-based payment and delivery system under Medicare. Urged enactment of the Medicare Physician Payment Innovation Act (H.R. 574), as introduced in Feb. 2013 by Representatives Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) and Joe Heck (R-NV). This legislation would eliminate the SGR once and for all and transition to better payment and delivery systems that are aligned with value. Specifically, H.R. 574 would repeal the SGR formula, provide more than 5 years of stable physician payments, with positive increases for all physician services, and higher payments for primary care, preventive and care coordination services, and establishes a process for practices to transition to new, more effective, models of care by 2018. Advocated for the Patient-Centered Medical Home model should be scaled up for broad Medicare adoption, recognized, through the medical neighborhood concept, that specialty and subspecialty practices, hospitals, and other healthcare professionals and entities that provide treatment to the patient need to be recognized and provided with incentives-both non-financial and financial-for engaging in patient-centered practices that complement and support the efforts of the PCMH to provide high quality, efficient, coordinated care; advocated for ACPs High Value, Cost-Conscious Care Initiative, which includes clinical, public policy, and educational components, designed to help physicians and patients understand the benefits, harms, and costs of an intervention and whether it provides good value, as well as to slow the unsustainable rate of health care cost increases while preserving high-value, high-quality care. Advocated for halting the nearly 25 percent cut in physician payments resulting from the flawed SGR formula, which was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2014; Advocated for H.R. 2810, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Beneficiary Access Act of 2013, which would repeal the SGR and transition to a new value-based payment and delivery system; Advocated for H.R. 4015/S.2000, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014, legislation introduced on Feb. 6, 2014 to repeal the SGR and transition to a new value-based payment and delivery system. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). FY2016 Appropriations: Advocated for the highest level of funding possible for the Labor-HHS-Education bill within the discretionary cap established by the Budget Control Act (BCA); Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps, Community Health Centers Fund, National Health Care Workforce Commission; Expressed concern to House and Senate leadership over the expiration, at the end of FY2015, of dedicated funding for Community Health Centers, the National Health Service Corps, and Teaching Health Centers. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Advocated to federal health agencies that wellness programs must not be used as a means to discriminate against the sick and vulnerable. Wellness programs must be developed to encourage prevention and improve health rather than penalize those who are medically unable to meet wellness program goals; Advocated that employers and health plans should fund programs proven to be effective in reducing obesity, stopping smoking, deterring alcohol abuse, and promoting wellness and providing coverage or subsidies for individuals to participate in such programs. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Essential Health Benefits: Commented on the proposed rule regarding essential benefits, actuarial value, and accreditation as issued by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services on November 20, 2012; Advocated that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106 in the 113th Congress), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services.. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201 (113th Congress), The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577 (113th Congress), the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487 (113th Congress), the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013 (113th Congress) Medicaid Pay Parity: Advocated for extending for at least two more years, beyond 2014, the Medicaid primary care payment increase, as enacted under the Affordable Care Act, which has only recently been implemented in a majority of states, and (2) including physicians practicing obstetrics and gynecology as qualified specialties, subject to the current eligibility requirement that at least 60 percent of their Medicaid billings are the primary care services as defined by the authorizing legislation, for the purposes of qualifying for the Medicaid primary care increases; Advocated for at least a two-year extension of the Medicaid payment parity provision beyond its 2014 expiration date, namely through the Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act. Tobacco Regulation: Expressed strong opposition to House appropriators to any amendment that would exempt any type of cigar from regulation under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, P.L. 111-31, or would impede the rulemaking process the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has initiated to determine the appropriate level of oversight for tobacco products not currently regulated by the agency; the FDA should retain the authority to regulate all tobacco products, including cigars, and should be permitted to use a science-based process for determining those regulations; Advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act of 2014, which gives the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission the authority to require the use of child-proof packaging on liquid nicotine containers sold to consumers.

Client expense: $98,691 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Increase Medicare Fee Schedule payments to make primary care competitive in the market with other physician career and specialty choices; create a fast track authority to develop and implement new physician payment models that better align payment with effective, efficient, patient-centered care such as the Patient Centered Medical Home; provide a voluntary shared savings program, Accountable Care Organizations, that promotes accountability for services delivered to a defined Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) patient population with the goals of increasing the quality and efficiency of services delivered; provide separate Medicare payment for specific care coordination services provided principally by primary care physicians; revise Medicare budget neutrality rules to recognize the value of primary care in reducing Medicare baseline spending; increase the accuracy of physician work relative value units under the Medicare physician fee schedule; improve the accuracy of practice expense RVUs under the Medicare Fee Schedule; increase Medicare bonus payments for primary care services provided in designated shortage areas; provide stable, positive, predictable updates under Medicares reimbursement formula; and replacing the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula with a long term solution that provides for stable, predictable updates for physicians (H.R. 3961). Urged Congress to enact legislation that would provide stable payments for all physician specialties for at least five years while providing higher updates for undervalued evaluation and management services, require that different payment models (including Patient-Centered Medical Homes) be pilot-tested on a voluntary basis during the five year period of stable payments, and designate a specific transition period for broad adoption of the new models that have been shown to be the most effective based on the pilots. Advocated in support of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which would repeal the SGR formula and move to a new value-based payment and delivery system under Medicare. Urged enactment of the Medicare Physician Payment Innovation Act (H.R. 574), as introduced in Feb. 2013 by Representatives Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) and Joe Heck (R-NV). This legislation would eliminate the SGR once and for all and transition to better payment and delivery systems that are aligned with value. Specifically, H.R. 574 would repeal the SGR formula, provide more than 5 years of stable physician payments, with positive increases for all physician services, and higher payments for primary care, preventive and care coordination services, and establishes a process for practices to transition to new, more effective, models of care by 2018. Advocated for the Patient-Centered Medical Home model should be scaled up for broad Medicare adoption, recognized, through the medical neighborhood concept, that specialty and subspecialty practices, hospitals, and other healthcare professionals and entities that provide treatment to the patient need to be recognized and provided with incentives-both non-financial and financial-for engaging in patient-centered practices that complement and support the efforts of the PCMH to provide high quality, efficient, coordinated care; advocated for ACPs High Value, Cost-Conscious Care Initiative, which includes clinical, public policy, and educational components, designed to help physicians and patients understand the benefits, harms, and costs of an intervention and whether it provides good value, as well as to slow the unsustainable rate of health care cost increases while preserving high-value, high-quality care. Advocated for halting the nearly 25 percent cut in physician payments resulting from the flawed SGR formula, which was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2014; Advocated for H.R. 2810, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Beneficiary Access Act of 2013, which would repeal the SGR and transition to a new value-based payment and delivery system; Advocated for H.R. 4015/S.2000, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014, legislation introduced on Feb. 6, 2014 to repeal the SGR and transition to a new value-based payment and delivery system. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). FY2016 Appropriations: Advocated for the highest level of funding possible for the Labor-HHS-Education bill within the discretionary cap established by the Budget Control Act (BCA); Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps, Community Health Centers Fund, National Health Care Workforce Commission; Expressed concern to House and Senate leadership over the expiration, at the end of FY2015, of dedicated funding for Community Health Centers, the National Health Service Corps, and Teaching Health Centers. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Advocated to federal health agencies that wellness programs must not be used as a means to discriminate against the sick and vulnerable. Wellness programs must be developed to encourage prevention and improve health rather than penalize those who are medically unable to meet wellness program goals; Advocated that employers and health plans should fund programs proven to be effective in reducing obesity, stopping smoking, deterring alcohol abuse, and promoting wellness and providing coverage or subsidies for individuals to participate in such programs. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Essential Health Benefits: Commented on the proposed rule regarding essential benefits, actuarial value, and accreditation as issued by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services on November 20, 2012; Advocated that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106 in the 113th Congress), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services.. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201 (113th Congress), The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577 (113th Congress), the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487 (113th Congress), the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013 (113th Congress) Medicaid Pay Parity: Advocated for extending for at least two more years, beyond 2014, the Medicaid primary care payment increase, as enacted under the Affordable Care Act, which has only recently been implemented in a majority of states, and (2) including physicians practicing obstetrics and gynecology as qualified specialties, subject to the current eligibility requirement that at least 60 percent of their Medicaid billings are the primary care services as defined by the authorizing legislation, for the purposes of qualifying for the Medicaid primary care increases; Advocated for at least a two-year extension of the Medicaid payment parity provision beyond its 2014 expiration date, namely through the Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act. Tobacco Regulation: Expressed strong opposition to House appropriators to any amendment that would exempt any type of cigar from regulation under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, P.L. 111-31, or would impede the rulemaking process the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has initiated to determine the appropriate level of oversight for tobacco products not currently regulated by the agency; the FDA should retain the authority to regulate all tobacco products, including cigars, and should be permitted to use a science-based process for determining those regulations; Advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act of 2014, which gives the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission the authority to require the use of child-proof packaging on liquid nicotine containers sold to consumers.

Client expense: $205,772 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE

H.R. 162, Medicaid Integrity Act (Bachmann) - Medicaid health plan audits H.R. 670, Puerto Rico Medicare Part B Equity Act (Pierluisi) H.R. 928, Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act (Schakowsky) - Medicare Part D changes H.R. 1179, Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act (Courtney) - Medicare coverage of skilled nursing care H.R. 1102, Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (Welch) - Medicare Part D price negotiations H.R. 1853, Medicaid Accountability and Care Act (Cassidy) -federal financing of state Medicaid programs H.R. 2305, Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures Act (Roskam-Carney) - fighting fraud and abuse H.R. 2453, Medicare Beneficiary Preservation of Choice Act (Rothfus-Schrader) - MA enrollment rules H.R. 2524, Medicare Better Health Rewards Program Act (Paulsen-Kind) - wellness incentives H.R. 2753, Securing Care for Seniors Act (Black) - MA payment and enrollment issues, wellness incentives H.R, 2960, Medicare Prescription Drug Integrity Act of 2013 (Pallone) - Part D drug utilization review H.R. 3512, Seniors' Health Care Choice Act (Heck) - MA open enrollment period H.R. 3890, Better Care, Lower Cost Act (Paulsen-Welch) - delivery models for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions H.R. 4015, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act (Burgess) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, ACA individual mandate delay H.R. 4160, Keep the Promise to Seniors Act (Ellmers) - blocking Medicare Part D proposed rule H.R. 4302, Protecting Access to Medicare Act (Pitts) - 12-month Medicare SGR patch, Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans, Appropriate Use Criteria for Advanced Diagnostic Imaging, Medicare sequestration cuts, Other Medicare-Medicaid Extenders H.R. 4484, Strengthening Healthcare Options for Vulnerable Populations Act (Sinema) - MA special needs plans H.R. 4998, MA Participant Bill of Rights Act (DeLauro) - MA plan provider networks H.R. 5113, Protecting Seniors' Medicare Choices from Obamacare Act (Coffman) - MA stabilization program H.R. 5183, Value Based Insurance Design for Better Care Act (Black) - MA demonstration to test VBID methodologies H.R. 5364, CHIP Extension and Improvement Act (Pallone) - federal CHIP funding Draft Bill, Protecting the Integrity of Medicare Act (Brady) - preventing fraud in Medicare and Medicaid S. 11, Fiscal Sustainability Act (Corker) - Medicare, Medigap, Medicaid issues S. 25 (Hatch) - extension of Medicare sequestration cuts S. 117, Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (Klobuchar) - Medicare Part D price negotiations S. 324, Puerto Rico Medicare Part B Equity Act (Schumer) S. 408, Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act (Durbin) - Medicare Part D changes S. 569, Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act (Brown) - Medicare coverage of skilled nursing care S. 1123, Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures Act (Carper-Coburn) - fighting fraud and abuse S. 1228, Medicare Better Health Rewards Program Act (Wyden-Portman) - wellness incentives S. 1787, Medicaid Managed Care Responsibility and Equity Act (Rockefeller) - medical loss ratio requirement for Medicaid managed care organizations S. 1871, SGR Repeal and Medicare Beneficiary Access Act (Senate Finance Committee) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, MA Special Needs Plans, Cost Plans, QI and TMA programs S. 1932, Better Care, Lower Cost Act (Wyden-Isakson) - delivery models for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions S. 1980, Medicaid and CHIP Continuous Quality Act (Rockefeller) - 12 month continuous enrollment S. 2000, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act (Senate Finance Committee) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms S. 2110, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act (Wyden) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, Medicare and Medicaid extenders S. 2122, Responsible Medicare SGR Repeal and Beneficiary Access Improvement Act (Hatch) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, ACA individual mandate repeal S. 2361, Stop SCAMS Act (Nelson-Collins) - reducing Medicare fraud S. 2461, CHIP Extension Act (Rockefeller) --- federal CHIP funding S. 2552, MA Participant Bill of Rights Act (Brown-Blumenthal) - MA plan provider networks S. 2783, Value Based Insurance Design for Better Care Act (Thune) - MA demonstration to test VBID methodologies Ongoing implementation issues for the Medicare Advantage (MA) and Medicare Part D prescription drug programs, including risk adjustment methodology, encounter data and other data-related issues, and audit issues; bidding and payment issues (including MA rate assumptions, MA coding intensity, MA Secondary Payer issues, Part D reinsurance, Part D low income subsidies, and audits); in-home health risk assessments; Medicare Medical Loss Ratio issues; implementation of sequestration under the Medicare Advantage and Part D programs; implications of the health insurer fee for MA and Part D plans; application process, audits to evaluate compliance with MA and Part D program rules, benefit design rules, SSA and CMS premium withhold processing issues, enrollment rules, marketing materials review and approval, marketing activities, including conduct and compensation of brokers and agents and plan sponsor marketing staff; measurement and oversight of plan performance including Special Needs Plans (SNPs); quality measures, grievance and appeals processes, fraud and abuse compliance including training; contracting issues for Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (SNPs); Federal preemption of State authority under MA and Part D programs, Part D prescription drug event data reporting, Part D formulary rules, Part D pharmacy access standards, Part D coverage gap discount program, including employer group waiver plan (EGWP) issues, and other operational issues; issues raised by Part D coverage of new specialty drugs, the Part D non-interference policy and related issues (e.g., preferred pharmacy and any willing pharmacy requirements, standards for network pharmacy reimbursement, and policies regarding sponsor negotiation of pharmacy price concessions); Medication Therapy Management Program requirements; Part D requirements for offering basic and enhanced alternative plans; MA and Part D systems issues affecting enrollment and disenrollment processing and payment and other operational issues; issues relating to MA and Part D Star Rating system including measures, the methodology for calculating ratings, and the role of the ratings for payment purposes; implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) changes to the Part D coverage gap; ongoing implementation issues for the Medicare cost plan program including enrollment, marketing materials review and approval and other operational issues; Medicare creditable drug coverage reporting requirements; implementation issues for the Medicare Retiree Drug Subsidy program; functionality of the Medicare Personal Plan Finder and Drug Plan Finder; National Medicare Education Program; Medicare demonstration program on performance-based payments for physician groups; physician quality reporting initiative; issues relating to Medicare coverage policy and national coverage decisions; Medicare clinical trials; Medicare/Medicaid integration for dual eligibles, including the Capitated Financial Alignment Demonstration; Medicaid managed care regulations and policies, including the Medicaid managed care actuarial soundness standard, quality oversight, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC), grievance and appeals processes, fraud and abuse compliance, beneficiary information requirements, treatment of Medicaid health plan member hospital days in the upper payment limit calculation; policies affecting State Medicaid funding, including block grants, the calculation of the federal medical assistance (federal matching) percentage (FMAP), and intergovernmental transfers (IGTs); coordination of benefits with state Medicaid programs; Medicaid prescription drug cost issues affecting Medicaid health plans including issues raised by Medicaid coverage of new specialty drugs; health plan-related Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP) issues, including eligibility and outreach issues and CHIP reauthorization; implementation of Medicaid changes made in Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, including Medicaid managed care organization provider tax issues; standards for electronic prescribing; implementation of Medicaid changes of interest to Medicaid health plans made in the ACA including Medicaid expansion, the managed care organization (MCO) prescription drug rebate provisions, minimum payments to primary care providers (PCPs), interactions between the Medicaid program and health insurance exchanges, and Medicaid and CHIP maintenance of effort (MOE) requirements; implications of the health insurer fee for Medicaid health plans ; issues related to Medigap coverage; issues relating to "meaningful use" requirements for health information technology; and other issues relating to health care reform implementation.

Client expense: $2,010,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ), Centers For Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Executive Office of the President (EOP), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Food & Drug Administration (FDA), Government Accountability Office (GAO), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Justice, Dept of (DOJ), Labor, Dept of (DOL), Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), Office of Management & Budget (OMB), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), SENATE, Social Security Administration (SSA), Treasury, Dept of, White House Office

Medicare Advantage Participant Bill of Rights Act (S. 2552 / H.R. 4998)

Client expense: Not reported · Firm income: $7,000

Government targets: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SENATE

Support legislation to eliminate the Independent Payment Advisory Board (S.351, H.R. 351, Protecting Seniors' Access to Medicare Act of 2013). Support legislation to increase residency slots for Graduate Medical Education (H.R. 1201, Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act). Lobby in support of legislation to enact a permanent repeal to the Medicare sustainable growth rate (S.2000/H.R. 4015; SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014 ). Lobby in support of a cap on the amount CMS can decrease payment to physician services in a given year. (related provision included in S.2000/H.R. 4015; SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014 and H.R. 4302, Protecting Access to Medicare Act). Lobby Congress in opposition to proposed legislation to repeal in-office ancillary and physician services for anatomic pathology services (H.R. 2914, Promoting Integrity in Medicare Act of 2013, FY 15 President's Budget). Lobby Congress on impact of Health Information Technology. Lobby Congress to stop sequestration cuts to Medicare physician payments (Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013). Lobby in support of increased transparency and adequate response time from CMS when setting values for misvalued codes. Oppose legislation allowing non-physician providers direct access to Medicare patients without a referral (H.R. 5304, Audiology Patient Choice Act of 2014). Advocate on issues related to waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare. Lobby in support of legislation to extend the 90 day reporting period for demonstration meaningful use in 2015 (H.R. 5481, Flexibility in Health IT Reporting (Flex-IT) Act) Lobby Congress to rescind or delay policy in the 2015 Final Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Rule to transition 10- and 90-day global period codes to 0-day global period codes in 2017 and 2018. Advocate for adequate and accurate network coverage for dermatologic care within Medicare Advantage and health insurance exchange networks (S. 2552/H.R. 4998, Medicare Advantage Participant Bill of Rights Act of 2014). Lobby Congress on issues related to telemedicine (H.R. 5380, the Medicare Telehealth Parity Act).

Client expense: $307,164 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SENATE

H.R. 4015, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014, all provisions S. 2000, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014, all provisions H.R. 1179, Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act of 2013, all provisions S. 569, Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act of 2013, all provisions H.R. 647, Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014 (ABLE Act of 2014), provisions relating to Misvalued Codes S. 313, Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2013 (ABLE Act of 2013), provisions relating to Misvalued Codes H.R. 962, Medicare Diabetes Prevention Act of 2013, all provisions S. 452, Medicare Diabetes Prevention Act of 2013, all provisions H.R. 4282, Creating Access to Residency Education Act of 2014, all provisions H.R. 4843, Native Contract and Rate Expenditure Act of 2014 (Native CARE Act of 2014), all provisions H.R. 5481, To continue the use of a 3-month quarter EHR reporting period for health care providers to demonstrate meaningful use for 2015 under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive payment programs, and for other purposes, all provisions H.R. 4998, Medicare Advantage Participant Bill of Rights Act of 2014, all provisions S. 2552, Medicare Advantage Participant Bill of Rights Act of 2014, all provisions H.R. 1180, Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, all provisions S. 577, Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, all provisions S. 1180, Medicare Data Access for Transparency and Accountability Act, all provisions S. 2501, Hospital Readmissions Program Accuracy and Accountability Act of 2014, all provisions H.R. 5723, Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act, all provisions S. 2694, Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act, all provisions H.R. 5780, Protecting the Integrity of Medicare Act (PIMA) of 2014, all provisions H.R. 4302, Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, provisions relating to coding and pricing issues Medicare program: SGR Repeal Medicare program: Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) Repeal Medicare program: Medicare Patient Empowerment Act Medicare program: Graduate Medical Education Medicare program: ICD-10 Repeal Medicare program: Overlapping Medicare incentive programs Medicare program: HIPAA including ICD-10 Medicare program: Electronic Health Records (EHR) - Meaningful Use Medicare program: EHR Certification Medicare program: Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) Medicare program: Laboratory Developed Tests Medicare program: Alternative Payment Models/quality performance measures Medicare program: Physician payment and delivery reform issues Medicare program: Hospital short stay Medicare program: Medicare funding for quality measure development Medicare program: Value-Based Modifiers Medicare program: Global Surgical Codes Medicare program: In-Office Ancillary Services Exception Medicare program: RUC - Misvalued and Care Coordination Codes Medicare program: Diabetes Medicare program: Recovery Audit Contractors Medicare program: Program Integrity - Meaningful Use Audits Medicare program: Program Integrity - Modifiers Medicare program: Program Integrity - Electronic Health Records Medicare and Medicaid programs: Coverage of lung cancer screening for high-risk patients

Client expense: $4,390,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Food & Drug Administration (FDA), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), Justice, Dept of (DOJ), Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), Office of Management & Budget (OMB), Office of Natl Drug Control Policy (NDCP), SENATE, Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Veterans Affairs, Dept of (VA), White House Office

H.R. 162, Medicaid Integrity Act (Bachmann) - Medicaid health plan audits H.R. 670, Puerto Rico Medicare Part B Equity Act (Pierluisi) H.R. 928, Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act (Schakowsky) - Medicare Part D changes H.R. 1024, Medication Therapy Management Empowerment Act (McMorris Rodgers) - medication therapy management programs H.R. 1179, Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act (Courtney) - Medicare coverage of skilled nursing care H.R. 1102, Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (Welch) - Medicare Part D price negotiations H.R. 1853, Medicaid Accountability and Care Act (Cassidy) -federal financing of state Medicaid programs H.R. 2305, Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures Act (Roskam-Carney) - fighting fraud and abuse H.R. 2453, Medicare Beneficiary Preservation of Choice Act (Rothfus-Schrader) - MA enrollment rules H.R. 2524, Medicare Better Health Rewards Program Act (Paulsen-Kind) - wellness incentives H.R. 2753, Securing Care for Seniors Act (Black) - MA payment and enrollment issues, wellness incentives H.R, 2960, Medicare Prescription Drug Integrity Act of 2013 (Pallone) - Part D drug utilization review H.R. 3512, Seniors' Health Care Choice Act (Heck) - MA open enrollment period H.R. 3890, Better Care, Lower Cost Act (Paulsen-Welch) - delivery models for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions H.R. 4015, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act (Burgess) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, ACA individual mandate delay H.R. 4160, Keep the Promise to Seniors Act (Ellmers) - blocking Medicare Part D proposed rule H.R. 4302, Protecting Access to Medicare Act (Pitts) - 12-month Medicare SGR patch, Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans, Appropriate Use Criteria for Advanced Diagnostic Imaging, Medicare sequestration cuts, Other Medicare-Medicaid Extenders H.R. 4484, Strengthening Healthcare Options for Vulnerable Populations Act (Sinema) - MA special needs plans H.R. 4998, MA Participant Bill of Rights Act (DeLauro) - MA plan provider networks H.R. 5113, Protecting Seniors' Medicare Choices from Obamacare Act (Coffman) - MA stabilization program H.R. 5183, Value Based Insurance Design for Better Care Act (Black) - MA demonstration to test VBID methodologies H.R. 5364, CHIP Extension and Improvement Act (Pallone) - federal CHIP funding Draft Bill, Protecting the Integrity of Medicare Act (Brady) - preventing fraud in Medicare and Medicaid S. 11, Fiscal Sustainability Act (Corker) - Medicare, Medigap, Medicaid issues S. 25 (Hatch) - extension of Medicare sequestration cuts S. 117, Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (Klobuchar) - Medicare Part D price negotiations S. 324, Puerto Rico Medicare Part B Equity Act (Schumer) S. 408, Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act (Durbin) - Medicare Part D changes S. 569, Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act (Brown) - Medicare coverage of skilled nursing care S. 1123, Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures Act (Carper-Coburn) - fighting fraud and abuse S. 1228, Medicare Better Health Rewards Program Act (Wyden-Portman) - wellness incentives S. 1787, Medicaid Managed Care Responsibility and Equity Act (Rockefeller) - medical loss ratio requirement for Medicaid managed care organizations S. 1871, SGR Repeal and Medicare Beneficiary Access Act (Senate Finance Committee) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, MA Special Needs Plans, Cost Plans, QI and TMA programs S. 1932, Better Care, Lower Cost Act (Wyden-Isakson) - delivery models for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions S. 1980, Medicaid and CHIP Continuous Quality Act (Rockefeller) - 12 month continuous enrollment S. 2000, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act (Senate Finance Committee) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms S. 2110, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act (Wyden) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, Medicare and Medicaid extenders S. 2122, Responsible Medicare SGR Repeal and Beneficiary Access Improvement Act (Hatch) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, ACA individual mandate repeal S. 2361, Stop SCAMS Act (Nelson-Collins) - reducing Medicare fraud S. 2461, CHIP Extension Act (Rockefeller) --- federal CHIP funding S. 2552, MA Participant Bill of Rights Act (Brown-Blumenthal) - MA plan provider networks S. 2783, Value Based Insurance Design for Better Care Act (Thune) - MA demonstration to test VBID methodologies Ongoing implementation issues for the Medicare Advantage (MA) and Medicare Part D prescription drug programs, including risk adjustment methodology, encounter data and other data-related issues, and audit issues; bidding and payment issues (including MA rate assumptions, MA coding intensity, MA Secondary Payer issues, Part D reinsurance, Part D low income subsidies, and audits); in-home health risk assessments; Medicare Medical Loss Ratio issues; implementation of sequestration under the Medicare Advantage and Part D programs; implications of the health insurer fee for MA and Part D plans; application process, audits to evaluate compliance with MA and Part D program rules, benefit design rules, SSA and CMS premium withhold processing issues, enrollment rules, marketing materials review and approval, marketing activities, including conduct and compensation of brokers and agents and plan sponsor marketing staff; measurement and oversight of plan performance including Special Needs Plans (SNPs); quality measures, grievance and appeals processes, fraud and abuse compliance including training; contracting issues for Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (SNPs); Federal preemption of State authority under MA and Part D programs, Part D prescription drug event data reporting, Part D formulary rules, Part D pharmacy access standards, Part D coverage gap discount program, including employer group waiver plan (EGWP) issues, and other operational issues; issues raised by Part D coverage of new specialty drugs, the Part D non-interference policy and related issues (e.g., preferred pharmacy and any willing pharmacy requirements, standards for network pharmacy reimbursement, and policies regarding sponsor negotiation of pharmacy price concessions); Medication Therapy Management Program requirements; Part D requirements for offering basic and enhanced alternative plans; MA and Part D systems issues affecting enrollment and disenrollment processing and payment and other operational issues; issues relating to MA and Part D Star Rating system including measures, the methodology for calculating ratings, and the role of the ratings for payment purposes; implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) changes to the Part D coverage gap; ongoing implementation issues for the Medicare cost plan program including enrollment, marketing materials review and approval and other operational issues;implementation issues for the Medicare Retiree Drug Subsidy program; functionality of the Medicare Personal Plan Finder and Drug Plan Finder; National Medicare Education Program; Medicare demonstration program on performance-based payments for physician groups; physician quality reporting initiative; issues relating to Medicare coverage policy and national coverage decisions; Medicare clinical trials; Medicare/Medicaid integration for dual eligibles, including the Capitated Financial Alignment Demonstration; Medicaid managed care regulations and policies, including the Medicaid managed care actuarial soundness standard, quality oversight, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC), grievance and appeals processes, fraud and abuse compliance, beneficiary information requirements, treatment of Medicaid health plan member hospital days in the upper payment limit calculation; policies affecting State Medicaid funding, including block grants, the calculation of the federal medical assistance (federal matching) percentage (FMAP), and intergovernmental transfers (IGTs); coordination of benefits with state Medicaid programs; Medicaid prescription drug cost issues affecting Medicaid health plans including issues raised by Medicaid coverage of new specialty drugs; health plan-related Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP) issues, including eligibility and outreach issues and CHIP reauthorization; implementation of Medicaid changes made in Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, including Medicaid managed care organization provider tax issues; standards for electronic prescribing; implementation of Medicaid changes of interest to Medicaid health plans made in the ACA including Medicaid expansion, the managed care organization (MCO) prescription drug rebate provisions, minimum payments to primary care providers (PCPs), interactions between the Medicaid program and health insurance exchanges, and Medicaid and CHIP maintenance of effort (MOE) requirements; implications of the health insurer fee for Medicaid health plans ; issues related to Medigap coverage financing for infectious disease such as Ebola; and other issues relating to health care reform implementation. *AddMACPACtoAgencyList

Client expense: $2,230,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ), Centers For Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Executive Office of the President (EOP), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Food & Drug Administration (FDA), Government Accountability Office (GAO), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Justice, Dept of (DOJ), Labor, Dept of (DOL), Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), Office of Management & Budget (OMB), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Pension & Welfare Benefits Administration, SENATE, Treasury, Dept of, White House Office

H.R. 855 - Optometric Equity in Medicaid Act, Federal mandates for Medicaid of optometric medical & surgical coverage, all sections SGR - Medicare Physician Payment Reform H.R. 702, Access to Frontline Health Care Act, all sections H.R. 1427, Truth in Health Marketing Act, all sections H.R. 351, Protecting Seniors Access to Medicare Act, all sections S. 351, Protecting Seniors Access to Medicare Act, all sections P.L. 111-192, Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010, all sections related to physicians and vision P.L. 111-148 Affordable Care Act, modifications: 1. Reducing regulatory/costly burdens on medical practices - relief from regulatory penalties 2. Preserving patient access to office ancillary testing services 3. Essential Benefits - Children's Vision 4. Independent Payment Advisory Board H.R. 920, National Health Service Corps Improvement Act H.R. 1331, Electronic Health Records Improvement Act P.L. 113-54, Drug Quality & Security Act, all sections H.R. 4015/S 2000, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act H.R. 4302, Protecting access to Medicare Act ASC Quality Reporting Program Medicare Advantage Participant Bill of Rights Act (S2552/HR4998), all sections 2015 Physician Schedule Rule, Issues pertaining to clinical data regional/global surgery payments

Client expense: $170,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), SENATE

H.R. 162, Medicaid Integrity Act (Bachmann) - Medicaid health plan audits. H.R. 670, Puerto Rico Medicare Part B Equity Act (Pierluisi). H.R. 928, Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act (Schakowsky) - Medicare Part D changes. H.R. 1024, Medication Therapy Management Empowerment Act (McMorris Rodgers) - medication therapy management programs. H.R. 1179, Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act (Courtney) - Medicare coverage of skilled nursing care. H.R. 1102, Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (Welch) - Medicare Part D price negotiations. H.R. 1853, Medicaid Accountability and Care Act (Cassidy) -federal financing of state Medicaid programs. H.R. 2305, Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures Act (Roskam-Carney) - fighting fraud and abuse. H.R. 2453, Medicare Beneficiary Preservation of Choice Act (Rothfus-Schrader) - MA enrollment rules. H.R. 2524, Medicare Better Health Rewards Program Act (Paulsen-Kind) - wellness incentives. H.R. 2753, Securing Care for Seniors Act (Black) - MA payment and enrollment issues, wellness incentives. H.R, 2960, Medicare Prescription Drug Integrity Act of 2013 (Pallone) - Part D drug utilization review. H.R. 3512, Seniors' Health Care Choice Act (Heck) - MA open enrollment period. H.R. 3890, Better Care, Lower Cost Act (Paulsen-Welch) - delivery models for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions. H.R. 4015, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act (Burgess) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, ACA individual mandate delay. H.R. 4160, Keep the Promise to Seniors Act (Ellmers) - blocking Medicare Part D proposed rule. H.R. 4302, Protecting Access to Medicare Act (Pitts) - 12-month Medicare SGR patch, Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans, Appropriate Use Criteria for Advanced Diagnostic Imaging, Medicare sequestration cuts, Other Medicare-Medicaid Extenders . H.R. 4484, Strengthening Healthcare Options for Vulnerable Populations Act (Sinema) - MA special needs plans. H.R. 4998, MA Participant Bill of Rights Act (DeLauro) - MA plan provider networks. H.R. 5113, Protecting Seniors' Medicare Choices from Obamacare Act (Coffman) - MA stabilization program. H.R. 5183, Value Based Insurance Design for Better Care Act (Black) - MA demonstration to test VBID methodologies. H.R. 5364, CHIP Extension and Improvement Act (Pallone) - federal CHIP funding. Draft Bill, Protecting the Integrity of Medicare Act (Brady) - preventing fraud in Medicare and Medicaid. S. 11, Fiscal Sustainability Act (Corker) - Medicare, Medigap, Medicaid issues. S. 25 (Hatch) - extension of Medicare sequestration cuts. S. 117, Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (Klobuchar) - Medicare Part D price negotiations. S. 324, Puerto Rico Medicare Part B Equity Act (Schumer). S. 408, Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act (Durbin) - Medicare Part D changes. S. 569, Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act (Brown) - Medicare coverage of skilled nursing care. S. 1123, Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures Act (Carper-Coburn) - fighting fraud and abuse. S. 1228, Medicare Better Health Rewards Program Act (Wyden-Portman) - wellness incentives. S. 1787, Medicaid Managed Care Responsibility and Equity Act (Rockefeller) - medical loss ratio requirement for Medicaid managed care organizations. S. 1871, SGR Repeal and Medicare Beneficiary Access Act (Senate Finance Committee) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, MA Special Needs Plans, Cost Plans, QI and TMA programs. S. 1932, Better Care, Lower Cost Act (Wyden-Isakson) - delivery models for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions. S. 1980, Medicaid and CHIP Continuous Quality Act (Rockefeller) - 12 month continuous enrollment. S. 2000, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act (Senate Finance Committee) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms. S. 2110, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act (Wyden) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, Medicare and Medicaid extenders. S. 2122, Responsible Medicare SGR Repeal and Beneficiary Access Improvement Act (Hatch) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, ACA individual mandate repeal. S. 2361, Stop SCAMS Act (Nelson-Collins) - reducing Medicare fraud. S. 2461, CHIP Extension Act (Rockefeller) --- federal CHIP funding. S. 2552, MA Participant Bill of Rights Act (Brown-Blumenthal) - MA plan provider networks. S. 2783, Value Based Insurance Design for Better Care Act (Thune) - MA demonstration to test VBID methodologies.

Client expense: Not reported · Firm income: $20,000

Government targets: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SENATE

HR 2190 & S 1206 - Medicare Drug Savings Act of 2011: To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to require drug manufacturers to provide drug rebates for drugs dispensed to low-income individuals under the Medicare prescription drug benefit program. HR 2753 - Securing Care for Seniors Act of 2013: To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to improve Medicare Advantage and for other purposes. HR 2810 - Medicare Patient Access and Quality Improvement Act of 2013: Amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to reform the sustainable growth rate and Medicare payment for physicians services and for other purposes. HR 3077 - TELE-MED Act of 2013: Amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to permit certain Medicare providers licensed in a state to provide telemedicine services to Medicare beneficiaries in a different state. HR 3890 - Better Care Lower Cost Act: To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to establish a Medicare Better Care Program to provide integrated care for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions. HR 4160 - Keep the Promise to Seniors Act of 2014: To prohibit further action on the proposed rule regarding change to the Medicare prescription drug benefit program. HR 4998 - Medicare Advantage Participation Bill of Rights Acts of 2014: To enhance beneficiary and provider protections and improve transparency in the Medicare Advantage market and for other purposes. HR 5183 & S 2783 - Value Based Insurance Design for Better Care Act of 2011: To establish a demonstration program requiring the utilization of value based insurance design to demonstrate that reducing the copayment or co-insurance charged to Medicare beneficiaries for selected high-value prescription medications and clinical services can increase their utilization and ultimately improve clinical outcomes and lower health care expenditures. HR 5380 - Medicare Telehealth Parity Act of 2014: To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for a phased in expansion of telehealth coverage under Medicare program. S 1932 - Better Care and Lower Costs Act: Amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to establish a Medicare Better Care Program to provide integrated care for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions, and for other purposes. S 2000 - The SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act: Amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to repeal the Medicare sustainable growth rate and improve Medicare payments for physicians and other professionals and for other purposes. S 2552 - Medicare Advantage Participant Bill of Rights Act of 2014: To enhance beneficiary & provider protections and improve transparency in the Medicare Advantage market and for other purposes.

Client expense: $1,510,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), SENATE

Legislation and policies related to: Physician/nurse practitioner reimbursement Provisions of the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148) Adoption of recommendations of the Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health Delay of implementation of Medicare durable medical equipment documentation requirements Medicare Shared Savings Program beneficiary assignment requirements Medicare-Medicaid hospital conditions of participation Draft legislation on admission of advanced practice registered nurses to hospital medical staff and granting of clinical privileges Provisions of the 2013, 2014 and 2015 Medicare fee schedule final regulations Draft legislation to require states to recognize nurse practitioners as primary care case managers and as primary care providers in managed care plans Draft legislation to extend Medicaid incentives to adopt electronic health records to nurse-managed health clinics Evaluation of the Medicare Graduate Nurse Education demonstration Medicare-Medicaid Program Integrity policies Medicaid maintenance of effort requirements Medicaid eligibility expansion and state options Medicaid waiver application procedures Medicaid per capita cap policy options Medicare-Medicaid dual eligible coverage and demonstration Draft Hospital Improvement for Payment (HIP) Act H.R. 351/S. 351 - Protecting Seniors Access to Medicare Act H.R. 2504/S. 1332 - Home Health Care Planning Improvement Act H.R. 2810 - Medicare Patient Access and Quality Improvement Act H.R. 2817 - Protect Patient Access to Quality Health Professionals Act H.R. 2986 - Protecting Access to Primary Care Act H.R. 3698 - Two-Midnight Rule Delay Act H.R. 3796 - Comprehensive Care Payment Innovation Act H.R. 3833 - To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to modify the Medicare durable medical equipment face-to-face encounter documentation requirement. H.R. 4015/S. 2000 - SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act H.R. 4302 - Protecting Access to Medicare Act H.R. 4663 - Protect Patient Access and Promote Hospital Efficiency Act H.R. 4930 - Advancing Care for Exceptional (ACE) Kids Act H.R. 4994/S. 2553 - Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation (IMPACT) Act H.R. 5098 - Ensuring Medicaid and Medicare Access to Providers Act H.R. 5353 - Medicaid Parity Act H.R. 5364 - CHIP Extension and Improvement Act H.R. 5780 - Protecting the Integrity of Medicare Act S. 1143/H.R. 2810 - Protecting Access to Rural Therapy Services (PARTS) Act S. 1871 - SGR Repeal and Medicare Beneficiary Access Act S. 1954/H.R. 4067 - To provide for the extension of the enforcement instruction on supervision requirements for outpatient therapeutic services in critical access and small rural hospitals through 2014. S. 1980 - Medicaid and CHIP Continuous Quality Act S. 2110 - Medicare SGR Repeal and Beneficiary Access Improvement Act S. 2122 - Responsible Medicare SGR Repeal and Beneficiary Access Improvement Act S. 2157 - Commonsense Medicare SGR Repeal and Beneficiary Access Improvement Act S. 2359 - Craig Thomas Rural Hospital and Provider Equity Act of 2014 S. 2461 - Childrens Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act S. 2491 - Medicare Protection Act S. 2552/H.R. 4998 - Medicare Advantage Participant Bill of Rights Act S. 2694/H.R. 5723 - Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act

Client expense: Not reported · Firm income: $23,450

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Food & Drug Administration (FDA), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), Natl Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of Management & Budget (OMB), SENATE, Veterans Affairs, Dept of (VA), White House Office

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps,provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Increase Medicare Fee Schedule payments to make primary care competitive in the market with other physician career and specialty choices; create a fast track authority to develop and implement new physician payment models that better align payment with effective, efficient, patient-centered care such as the Patient Centered Medical Home; provide a voluntary shared savings program, Accountable Care Organizations, that promotes accountability for services delivered to a defined Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) patient population with the goals of increasing the quality and efficiency of services delivered; provide separate Medicare payment for specific care coordination services provided principally by primary care physicians; revise Medicare budget neutrality rules to recognize the value of primary care in reducing Medicare baseline spending; increase the accuracy of physician work relative value units under the Medicare physician fee schedule; improve the accuracy of practice expense RVUs under the Medicare Fee Schedule; increase Medicare bonus payments for primary care services provided in designated shortage areas; provide stable, positive, predictable updates under Medicares reimbursement formula; and replacing the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula with a long term solution that provides for stable, predictable updates for physicians (H.R. 3961). Urged Congress to enact legislation that would provide stable payments for all physician specialties for at least five years while providing higher updates for undervalued evaluation and management services, require that different payment models (including Patient-Centered Medical Homes) be pilot-tested on a voluntary basis during the five year period of stable payments, and designate a specific transition period for broad adoption of the new models that have been shown to be the most effective based on the pilots. Urged enactment of the Medicare Physician Payment Innovation Act (H.R. 574), as introduced in Feb. 2013 by Representatives Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) and Joe Heck (R-NV). This legislation would eliminate the SGR once and for all and transition to better payment and delivery systems that are aligned with value. Specifically, H.R. 574 would repeal the SGR formula, provide more than 5 years of stable physician payments, with positive increases for all physician services, and higher payments for primary care, preventive and care coordination services, and establishes a process for practices to transition to new, more effective, models of care by 2018.Advocated for the Patient-Centered Medical Home model should be scaled up for broad Medicare adoption, recognized, through the medical neighborhood concept, that specialty and subspecialty practices, hospitals, and other healthcare professionals and entities that provide treatment to the patient need to be recognized and provided with incentivesboth non-financial and financialfor engaging in patient-centered practices that complement and support the efforts of the PCMH to provide high quality, efficient, coordinated care; advocated for ACPs High Value, Cost-Conscious Care Initiative, which includes clinical, public policy, and educational components, designed to help physicians and patients understand the benefits, harms, and costs of an intervention and whether it provides good value, as well as to slow the unsustainable rate of health care cost increases while preserving high-value, high-quality care. Advocated for halting the nearly 25 percent cut in physician payments resulting from the flawed SGR formula, which was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2014; Advocated for H.R. 2810, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Beneficiary Access Act of 2013, which would repeal the SGR and transition to a new value-based payment and delivery system; Advocated for H.R. 4015/S.2000, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014, legislation introduced on Feb. 6, 2014 to repeal the SGR and transition to a new value-based payment and delivery system. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). FY2015 Appropriations: Advocated for the highest level of funding possible for the Labor-HHS-Education bill within the discretionary cap established by the Budget Control Act (BCA); Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps, Community Health Centers Fund, National Health Care Workforce Commission, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Operations and Management of Exchanges; Expressed concern to House and Senate leadership over the expiration, at the end of FY2015, of dedicated funding for Community Health Centers, the National Health Service Corps, and Teaching Health Centers. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Advocated to federal health agencies that wellness programs must not be used as a means to discriminate against the sick and vulnerable. Wellness programs must be developed to encourage prevention and improve health rather than penalize those who are medically unable to meet wellness program goals; Advocated that employers and health plans should fund programs proven to be effective in reducing obesity, stopping smoking, deterring alcohol abuse, and promoting wellness and providing coverage or subsidies for individuals to participate in such programs. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories.State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Essential Health Benefits: Commented on the proposed rule regarding essential benefits, actuarial value, and accreditation as issued by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services on November 20, 2012; Advocated that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201, The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577, the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487, the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013, and legislation to permanently reauthorize the Conrad State 30 J-1 visa waiver program through S. 616, the Conrad State 30 and Physician Access Act.Medicaid Pay Parity: Advocated for extending for at least two more years, beyond 2014, the Medicaid primary care payment increase, as enacted under the Affordable Care Act, which has only recently been implemented in a majority of states, and (2) including physicians practicing obstetrics and gynecology as qualified specialties, subject to the current eligibility requirement that at least 60 percent of their Medicaid billings are the primary care services as defined by the authorizing legislation, for the purposes of qualifying for the Medicaid primary care increases; Advocated for at least a two-year extension of the Medicaid payment parity provision beyond its 2014 expiration date, namely through the Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act. Tobacco Regulation: Expressed strong opposition to House appropriators to any amendment that would exempt any type of cigar from regulation under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, P.L. 111-31, or would impede the rulemaking process the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has initiated to determine the appropriate level of oversight for tobacco products not currently regulated by the agency; the FDA should retain the authority to regulate all tobacco products, including cigars, and should be permitted to use a science-based process for determining those regulations; Advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act of 2014, which gives the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission the authority to require the use of child-proof packaging on liquid nicotine containers sold to consumers. Advance Care Planning: Urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to adopt the American Medical Associations new Current Procedural Terminology Codes for advance care planning.

Client expense: $225,016 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps,provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Increase Medicare Fee Schedule payments to make primary care competitive in the market with other physician career and specialty choices; create a fast track authority to develop and implement new physician payment models that better align payment with effective, efficient, patient-centered care such as the Patient Centered Medical Home; provide a voluntary shared savings program, Accountable Care Organizations, that promotes accountability for services delivered to a defined Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) patient population with the goals of increasing the quality and efficiency of services delivered; provide separate Medicare payment for specific care coordination services provided principally by primary care physicians; revise Medicare budget neutrality rules to recognize the value of primary care in reducing Medicare baseline spending; increase the accuracy of physician work relative value units under the Medicare physician fee schedule; improve the accuracy of practice expense RVUs under the Medicare Fee Schedule; increase Medicare bonus payments for primary care services provided in designated shortage areas; provide stable, positive, predictable updates under Medicares reimbursement formula; and replacing the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula with a long term solution that provides for stable, predictable updates for physicians (H.R. 3961). Urged Congress to enact legislation that would provide stable payments for all physician specialties for at least five years while providing higher updates for undervalued evaluation and management services, require that different payment models (including Patient-Centered Medical Homes) be pilot-tested on a voluntary basis during the five year period of stable payments, and designate a specific transition period for broad adoption of the new models that have been shown to be the most effective based on the pilots. Urged enactment of the Medicare Physician Payment Innovation Act (H.R. 574), as introduced in Feb. 2013 by Representatives Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) and Joe Heck (R-NV). This legislation would eliminate the SGR once and for all and transition to better payment and delivery systems that are aligned with value. Specifically, H.R. 574 would repeal the SGR formula, provide more than 5 years of stable physician payments, with positive increases for all physician services, and higher payments for primary care, preventive and care coordination services, and establishes a process for practices to transition to new, more effective, models of care by 2018.Advocated for the Patient-Centered Medical Home model should be scaled up for broad Medicare adoption, recognized, through the medical neighborhood concept, that specialty and subspecialty practices, hospitals, and other healthcare professionals and entities that provide treatment to the patient need to be recognized and provided with incentivesboth non-financial and financialfor engaging in patient-centered practices that complement and support the efforts of the PCMH to provide high quality, efficient, coordinated care; advocated for ACPs High Value, Cost-Conscious Care Initiative, which includes clinical, public policy, and educational components, designed to help physicians and patients understand the benefits, harms, and costs of an intervention and whether it provides good value, as well as to slow the unsustainable rate of health care cost increases while preserving high-value, high-quality care. Advocated for halting the nearly 25 percent cut in physician payments resulting from the flawed SGR formula, which was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2014; Advocated for H.R. 2810, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Beneficiary Access Act of 2013, which would repeal the SGR and transition to a new value-based payment and delivery system; Advocated for H.R. 4015/S.2000, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014, legislation introduced on Feb. 6, 2014 to repeal the SGR and transition to a new value-based payment and delivery system. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). FY2015 Appropriations: Advocated for the highest level of funding possible for the Labor-HHS-Education bill within the discretionary cap established by the Budget Control Act (BCA); Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps, Community Health Centers Fund, National Health Care Workforce Commission, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Operations and Management of Exchanges; Expressed concern to House and Senate leadership over the expiration, at the end of FY2015, of dedicated funding for Community Health Centers, the National Health Service Corps, and Teaching Health Centers. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Advocated to federal health agencies that wellness programs must not be used as a means to discriminate against the sick and vulnerable. Wellness programs must be developed to encourage prevention and improve health rather than penalize those who are medically unable to meet wellness program goals; Advocated that employers and health plans should fund programs proven to be effective in reducing obesity, stopping smoking, deterring alcohol abuse, and promoting wellness and providing coverage or subsidies for individuals to participate in such programs. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories.State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Essential Health Benefits: Commented on the proposed rule regarding essential benefits, actuarial value, and accreditation as issued by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services on November 20, 2012; Advocated that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201, The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577, the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487, the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013, and legislation to permanently reauthorize the Conrad State 30 J-1 visa waiver program through S. 616, the Conrad State 30 and Physician Access Act.Medicaid Pay Parity: Advocated for extending for at least two more years, beyond 2014, the Medicaid primary care payment increase, as enacted under the Affordable Care Act, which has only recently been implemented in a majority of states, and (2) including physicians practicing obstetrics and gynecology as qualified specialties, subject to the current eligibility requirement that at least 60 percent of their Medicaid billings are the primary care services as defined by the authorizing legislation, for the purposes of qualifying for the Medicaid primary care increases; Advocated for at least a two-year extension of the Medicaid payment parity provision beyond its 2014 expiration date, namely through the Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act. Tobacco Regulation: Expressed strong opposition to House appropriators to any amendment that would exempt any type of cigar from regulation under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, P.L. 111-31, or would impede the rulemaking process the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has initiated to determine the appropriate level of oversight for tobacco products not currently regulated by the agency; the FDA should retain the authority to regulate all tobacco products, including cigars, and should be permitted to use a science-based process for determining those regulations; Advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act of 2014, which gives the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission the authority to require the use of child-proof packaging on liquid nicotine containers sold to consumers. Advance Care Planning: Urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to adopt the American Medical Associations new Current Procedural Terminology Codes for advance care planning.

Client expense: $101,504 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE

Federal Coordinated Health Care Office (Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office). (No bill.) Proposals related to the activities of the Federal Coordinated Health Care Office intended to improve the quality of care for recipients receiving benefits from both Medicare and Medicaid, i.e., dual-eligibles. Medicare Advantage. S. 2552, H.R.4998, Medicare Advantage Participant Bill of Rights Act of 2014: provisions to establish necessary protections for seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. Medicare Benefit Redesign. S. 11, Fiscal Sustainability Act of 2013: provisions pertaining to Parts A and B deductibles; premiums, including means-testing; a catastrophic cap on out-of-pocket spending; the eligibility age; and proposals to privatize Medicare. Medicare Drug Savings. S. 740, H.R. 1588, Medicare Drug Savings Act of 2013: provisions to extend the application of Medicaid drug rebates to prescription drugs paid for by Medicare and used by people eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid (dual-eligibles), and by people receiving the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy. Medicare Home Health Benefits. (No bill.) Proposals pertaining to copayments for beneficiaries receiving the Medicare home health benefit. Medicare Part D Negotiation of Drug Prices. S. 408, H.R. 928, Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act of 2013: proposals to create a Medicare-operated prescription drug plan, allowing or requiring the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate price concessions from pharmaceutical manufacturers for drugs purchased under the Part D program. Medicare Physician Fees and Extenders. H.R. 4015, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014; S. 2157, Commonsense Medicare SGR Repeal and Beneficiary Access Improvement Act of 2014: provisions relating to a permanent fix of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula used to determine physician fees under Part B; the extension of the Qualified Individual (QI) program; and the therapy caps. Medicare Supplemental Health Insurance. (No bill.) Proposals to increase costs for Medicare beneficiaries who purchase Medigap insurance. Medicare Observation Status. S. 569, H.R. 1179, Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act of 2013: legislation to count days in the hospital in observation status toward meeting the three-day prior hospitalization requirement for skilled nursing facility (SNF) care eligibility. Nursing Home Staffing. H.R. 5373, Put A Registered Nurse in the Nursing Home Act of 2014: legislation to require nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities that receive Medicare and/or Medicaid reimbursement to have at least one direct care registered nurse on duty at all times. Comprehensive Health Care Reform. P.L. 111-148, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; P.L. 111-152, Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010: implementation of provisions reducing Medicare Advantage plan payments; requiring higher income Medicare beneficiaries to pay an increased share of Medicare Parts B and D premium costs; expanding benefits for low-income beneficiaries under the Medicare Savings Programs and the Part D Low-Income Subsidy (LIS); expanding coverage of prevention services; testing payment and delivery system reforms; and providing expanded Medicaid coverage.

Client expense: $230,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Administration on Aging, Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Executive Office of the President (EOP), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), Justice, Dept of (DOJ), Natl Economic Council (NEC), Office of Management & Budget (OMB), President of the U.S., SENATE, Social Security Administration (SSA), Treasury, Dept of, Vice President of the U.S.

General Medicare Protection, Repeal of Sustainable Growth Rate: H.R. 574, Prevention of Fraud, Waste, and Abuse: H.R. 2305 and H.R. 3090 and S. 1123 and S. 1019 and H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, Savings on Medical Expenses: H.R. 4104 and H.R. 1179 and S. 569, Workforce Advancements: S. 2251 and H.R. 4445.

Client expense: $40,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SENATE

Legislation and policies related to: Physician/nurse practitioner reimbursement Provisions of the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148) Adoption of recommendations of the Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health Delay of implementation of Medicare durable medical equipment documentation requirements Medicare Shared Savings Program beneficiary assignment requirements Medicare-Medicaid hospital conditions of participation Draft legislation on admission of advanced practice registered nurses to hospital medical staff and granting of clinical privileges Provisions of the 2013 and 2014 Medicare fee schedule final regulations Draft legislation to require states to recognize nurse practitioners as primary care case managers and as primary care providers in managed care plans Draft legislation to extend Medicaid incentives to adopt electronic health records to nurse-managed health clinics Evaluation of the Medicare Graduate Nurse Education demonstration Medicare-Medicaid Program Integrity policies Medicaid maintenance of effort requirements Medicaid eligibility expansion and state options Medicaid waiver application procedures Medicaid per capita cap policy options Medicare-Medicaid dual eligible coverage and demonstration H.R. 351/S. 351 - Protecting Seniors Access to Medicare Act H.R. 2504/S. 1332 - Home Health Care Planning Improvement Act H.R. 2810 - Medicare Patient Access and Quality Improvement Act H.R. 2817 - Protect Patient Access to Quality Health Professionals Act H.R. 2986 - Protecting Access to Primary Care Act H.R. 3698 - Two-Midnight Rule Delay Act H.R. 3796 - Comprehensive Care Payment Innovation Act H.R. 3833 - To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to modify the Medicare durable medical equipment face-to-face encounter documentation requirement. H.R. 4015/S. 2000 - SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act H.R. 4302 - Protecting Access to Medicare Act H.R. 4663 - Protect Patient Access and Promote Hospital Efficiency Act H.R. 4930 - Advancing Care for Exceptional (ACE) Kids Act H.R. 4994/S. 2553 - Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation (IMPACT) Act H.R. 5098 - Ensuring Medicaid and Medicare Access to Providers Act H.R. 5353 - Medicaid Parity Act H.R. 5364 - CHIP Extension and Improvement Act S. 1143/H.R. 2810 - Protecting Access to Rural Therapy Services (PARTS) Act S. 1871 - SGR Repeal and Medicare Beneficiary Access Act S. 1954/H.R. 4067 - To provide for the extension of the enforcement instruction on supervision requirements for outpatient therapeutic services in critical access and small rural hospitals through 2014. S. 1980 - Medicaid and CHIP Continuous Quality Act S. 2110 - Medicare SGR Repeal and Beneficiary Access Improvement Act S. 2122 - Responsible Medicare SGR Repeal and Beneficiary Access Improvement Act S. 2157 - Commonsense Medicare SGR Repeal and Beneficiary Access Improvement Act S. 2359 - Craig Thomas Rural Hospital and Provider Equity Act of 2014 S. 2461 - Childrens Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act S. 2491 - Medicare Protection Act S. 2552/H.R. 4998 - Medicare Advantage Participant Bill of Rights Act S. 2694 - Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act

Client expense: Not reported · Firm income: $23,450

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Food & Drug Administration (FDA), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), Natl Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of Management & Budget (OMB), SENATE, Veterans Affairs, Dept of (VA), White House Office

Urge Congress to support efforts that increase access to care for people with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis by supporting the following efforts: -H.R.460: Patients' Access to Treatments Act of 2013: Support efforts to reduce impediments to treatment for individuals with moderate to severe psoriasis. The National Psoriasis Foundation supports the Patients' Access to Treatments Act of 2013 (introduced in the House as H.R. 460), which limits copayments, coinsurance, and other cost-sharing and out-of-pocket expenses for so-calledspecialty tier drugs. This bill will help ensure that people with psoriasis and other chronic conditions have access to the therapy that their health care provider determines is most appropriate for them. -S.1365/H.R. 2827: The Part D Beneficiary Appeals Fairness Act: Support efforts to reduce impediments to treatment for individuals with moderate to severe psoriasis. The National Psoriasis Foundation supports the Part D Beneficiary Appeals Fairness Act. The Act amends part D (Voluntary Prescription Drug Benefit Program) of title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act, with respect to a prescription drug plan (PDP) that provides for any tiered cost-sharing within a formulary (including a structure that provides for different co-payment or coinsurance amounts for drugs in different tiers included within the formulary), to authorize a Medicare part D eligible individual enrolled in the plan to request an exception to the tiered cost-sharing structure. -Ensure that Medicare Advantage networks are providing patients with adequate and timely access to providers with appropriate training and specialty expertise by copsonsoring HR.4998/S.2552

Client expense: $80,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Natl Institutes of Health (NIH), SENATE

Support legislation to eliminate the Independent Payment Advisory Board (S.351, H.R. 351, Protecting Seniors' Access to Medicare Act of 2013). Support legislation to increase residency slots for Graduate Medical Education (H.R. 1201, Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act). Lobby in support of legislation to enact a permanent repeal to the Medicare sustainable growth rate (S.2000/H.R. 4015; SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014 ). Lobby in support of a cap on the amount CMS can decrease payment to physician services in a given year. (related provision included in S.2000/H.R. 4015; SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014 and H.R. 4302, Protecting Access to Medicare Act). Lobby Congress in opposition to proposed legislation to repeal in-office ancillary and physician services for anatomic pathology services (H.R. 2914, Promoting Integrity in Medicare Act of 2013, FY 15 President's Budget). Lobby Congress on impact of Health Information Technology. Lobby Congress to stop sequestration cuts to Medicare physician payments (Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013). Lobby in support of increased transparency and adequate response time from CMS when setting values for misvalued codes. Oppose legislation allowing non-physician providers direct access to Medicare patients without a referral (H.R. 5304, Audiology Patient Choice Act of 2014). Advocate on issues related to waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare. Advocate regarding use and release of Medicare data regarding services provide by physicians. Advocate for adequate and accurate network coverage for dermatologic care within Medicare Advantage networks (S. 2552/H.R. 4998, Medicare Advantage Participant Bill of Rights Act of 2014). Lobby Congress on issues related to telemedicine (H.R. 5380, the Medicare Telehealth Parity Act).

Client expense: $410,421 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SENATE

H.R. 162, Medicaid Integrity Act (Bachmann) - Medicaid health plan audits H.R. 670, Puerto Rico Medicare Part B Equity Act (Pierluisi) H.R. 928, Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act (Schakowsky) - Medicare Part D changes H.R. 1179, Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act (Courtney) - Medicare coverage of skilled nursing care H.R. 1102, Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (Welch) - Medicare Part D price negotiations H.R. 1853, Medicaid Accountability and Care Act (Cassidy) -federal financing of state Medicaid programs H.R. 2305, Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures Act (Roskam-Carney) - fighting fraud and abuse H.R. 2453, Medicare Beneficiary Preservation of Choice Act (Rothfus-Schrader) - MA enrollment rules H.R. 2524, Medicare Better Health Rewards Program Act (Paulsen-Kind) - wellness incentives H.R. 2753, Securing Care for Seniors Act (Black) - MA payment and enrollment issues, wellness incentives H.R, 2960, Medicare Prescription Drug Integrity Act of 2013 (Pallone) - Part D drug utilization review H.R. 3512, Seniors' Health Care Choice Act (Heck) - MA open enrollment period H.R. 3890, Better Care, Lower Cost Act (Paulsen-Welch) - delivery models for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions H.R. 4015, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act (Burgess) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, ACA individual mandate delay H.R. 4160, Keep the Promise to Seniors Act (Ellmers) - blocking Medicare Part D proposed rule H.R. 4302, Protecting Access to Medicare Act (Pitts) - 12-month Medicare SGR patch, Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans, Appropriate Use Criteria for Advanced Diagnostic Imaging, Medicare sequestration cuts, Other Medicare-Medicaid Extenders H.R. 4484, Strengthening Healthcare Options for Vulnerable Populations Act (Sinema) - MA special needs plans H.R. 4998, MA Participant Bill of Rights Act (DeLauro) - MA plan provider networks H.R. 5113, Protecting Seniors' Medicare Choices from Obamacare Act (Coffman) - MA stabilization program H.R. 5183, Value Based Insurance Design for Better Care Act (Black) - MA demonstration to test VBID methodologies H.R. 5364, CHIP Extension and Improvement Act (Pallone) - federal CHIP funding Draft Bill, Protecting the Integrity of Medicare Act (Brady) - preventing fraud in Medicare and Medicaid S. 11, Fiscal Sustainability Act (Corker) - Medicare, Medigap, Medicaid issues S. 25 (Hatch) - extension of Medicare sequestration cuts S. 117, Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (Klobuchar) - Medicare Part D price negotiations S. 324, Puerto Rico Medicare Part B Equity Act (Schumer) S. 408, Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act (Durbin) - Medicare Part D changes S. 569, Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act (Brown) - Medicare coverage of skilled nursing care S. 1123, Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures Act (Carper-Coburn) - fighting fraud and abuse S. 1228, Medicare Better Health Rewards Program Act (Wyden-Portman) - wellness incentives S. 1787, Medicaid Managed Care Responsibility and Equity Act (Rockefeller) - medical loss ratio requirement for Medicaid managed care organizations S. 1871, SGR Repeal and Medicare Beneficiary Access Act (Senate Finance Committee) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, MA Special Needs Plans, Cost Plans, QI and TMA programs S. 1932, Better Care, Lower Cost Act (Wyden-Isakson) - delivery models for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions S. 1980, Medicaid and CHIP Continuous Quality Act (Rockefeller) - 12 month continuous enrollment S. 2000, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act (Senate Finance Committee) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms S. 2110, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act (Wyden) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, Medicare and Medicaid extenders S. 2122, Responsible Medicare SGR Repeal and Beneficiary Access Improvement Act (Hatch) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, ACA individual mandate repeal S. 2361, Stop SCAMS Act (Nelson-Collins) - reducing Medicare fraud S. 2461, CHIP Extension Act (Rockefeller) --- federal CHIP funding S. 2552, MA Participant Bill of Rights Act (Brown-Blumenthal) - MA plan provider networks S. 2783, Value Based Insurance Design for Better Care Act (Thune) - MA demonstration to test VBID methodologies Ongoing implementation issues for the Medicare Advantage (MA) and Medicare Part D prescription drug programs, including risk adjustment methodology, encounter data and other data-related issues, and audit issues; bidding and payment issues (including MA rate assumptions, MA coding intensity, MA Secondary Payer issues, Part D reinsurance, Part D low income subsidies, and audits); in-home health risk assessments; Medicare Medical Loss Ratio issues; implementation of sequestration under the Medicare Advantage and Part D programs; implications of the health insurer fee for MA and Part D plans; application process, audits to evaluate compliance with MA and Part D program rules, benefit design rules, SSA and CMS premium withhold processing issues, enrollment rules, marketing materials review and approval, marketing activities, including conduct and compensation of brokers and agents and plan sponsor marketing staff; measurement and oversight of plan performance including Special Needs Plans (SNPs); quality measures, grievance and appeals processes, fraud and abuse compliance including training; contracting issues for Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (SNPs); Federal preemption of State authority under MA and Part D programs, Part D prescription drug event data reporting, Part D formulary rules, Part D pharmacy access standards, Part D coverage gap discount program, including employer group waiver plan (EGWP) issues, and other operational issues; issues raised by Part D coverage of new specialty drugs, the Part D non-interference policy and related issues (e.g., preferred pharmacy and any willing pharmacy requirements, standards for network pharmacy reimbursement, and policies regarding sponsor negotiation of pharmacy price concessions); Medication Therapy Management Program requirements; Part D requirements for offering basic and enhanced alternative plans; MA and Part D systems issues affecting enrollment and disenrollment processing and payment and other operational issues; issues relating to MA and Part D Star Rating system including measures, the methodology for calculating ratings, and the role of the ratings for payment purposes; implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) changes to the Part D coverage gap; ongoing implementation issues for the Medicare cost plan program including enrollment, marketing materials review and approval and other operational issues; Medicare creditable drug coverage reporting requirements; implementation issues for the Medicare Retiree Drug Subsidy program; functionality of the Medicare Personal Plan Finder and Drug Plan Finder; National Medicare Education Program; Medicare demonstration program on performance-based payments for physician groups; physician quality reporting initiative; issues relating to Medicare coverage policy and national coverage decisions; Medicare clinical trials; Medicare/Medicaid integration for dual eligibles, including the Capitated Financial Alignment Demonstration; Medicaid managed care regulations and policies, including the Medicaid managed care actuarial soundness standard, quality oversight, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC), grievance and appeals processes, fraud and abuse compliance, beneficiary information requirements, treatment of Medicaid health plan member hospital days in the upper payment limit calculation; policies affecting State Medicaid funding, including block grants, the calculation of the federal medical assistance (federal matching) percentage (FMAP), and intergovernmental transfers (IGTs); coordination of benefits with state Medicaid programs; Medicaid prescription drug cost issues affecting Medicaid health plans including issues raised by Medicaid coverage of new specialty drugs; health plan-related Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP) issues, including eligibility and outreach issues and CHIP reauthorization; implementation of Medicaid changes made in Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, including Medicaid managed care organization provider tax issues; standards for electronic prescribing; implementation of Medicaid changes of interest to Medicaid health plans made in the ACA including Medicaid expansion, the managed care organization (MCO) prescription drug rebate provisions, minimum payments to primary care providers (PCPs), interactions between the Medicaid program and health insurance exchanges, and Medicaid and CHIP maintenance of effort (MOE) requirements; implications of the health insurer fee for Medicaid health plans ; issues related to Medigap coverage; issues relating to "meaningful use" requirements for health information technology; and other issues relating to health care reform implementation.

Client expense: $2,010,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ), Centers For Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Executive Office of the President (EOP), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Food & Drug Administration (FDA), Government Accountability Office (GAO), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Justice, Dept of (DOJ), Labor, Dept of (DOL), Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), Office of Management & Budget (OMB), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), SENATE, Social Security Administration (SSA), Treasury, Dept of, White House Office

S 2087, S 2491 - Medicare Protection Act, reconciliation budget rules Implementation of the Affordable Care Act and Medicare Improving access to home care services HR 5364, S 2461 - Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Extension HR 4998, S 2552 - Medicare Advantage Participant Bill of Rights Act Reduce prescription drug costs in Medicare/Medicaid HR 5294 - Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2014 Increasing access to medical language interpreters Conflict of interest section of Home and Community Based Regulations issued by CMS. Asked Senate help to obtain CMS intent of regulation Medicaid funding/benefits Medicare funding/benefits/policy/eligibility age/mean test

Client expense: $550,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SENATE, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), White House Office

Medicaid Managed Care. Alignment of Medicare and Medicaid for Dually eligible recipients.. Preservation of Medicaid as an entitlement program and avoiding cuts. Preservation of Medicare. Medicare Secondary Payer Program. Implementation of the Medicaid Community First Choice Option and Balancing Incentives Program. Achieving a Better Life Experience Act legislation, H.R. 647, S. 313. Implementation of the Affordable Care Act, P.L. 111-148 and P.L. 111-192, including Medicaid Health and Long Term Services and Supports provisions. Quality measures for long term services and supports in Medicaid Managed Care and payment alignment initiatives for beneficiaries of both Medicare and Medicaid. HCBS Settings Support for HR 3749 Medicare demonstration for coverage of low vision devices; H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, The Medicare Advantage bill of rights and S. 998 / H.R. 942, Ensuring access to complex rehabilitation technology in Medicare and HR 4900, competitive bidding for Medicare. Expressing concerns about Medicare Coverage Policies for hearing implants and speech general devices. Medicaid coverage of autism services.

Client expense: $30,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Education, Dept of, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), Housing & Urban Development, Dept of (HUD), Justice, Dept of (DOJ), Labor, Dept of (DOL), Natl Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of Management & Budget (OMB), SENATE, Social Security Administration (SSA), White House Office

H.R. 162, Medicaid Integrity Act (Bachmann) - Medicaid health plan audits. H.R. 670, Puerto Rico Medicare Part B Equity Act (Pierluisi). H.R. 928, Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act (Schakowsky) - Medicare Part D changes. H.R. 1179, Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act (Courtney) - Medicare coverage of skilled nursing care. H.R. 1102, Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (Welch) - Medicare Part D price negotiations. H.R. 1853, Medicaid Accountability and Care Act (Cassidy) -federal financing of state Medicaid programs. H.R. 2305, Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures Act (Roskam-Carney) - fighting fraud and abuse. H.R. 2453, Medicare Beneficiary Preservation of Choice Act (Rothfus-Schrader) - MA enrollment rules. H.R. 2524, Medicare Better Health Rewards Program Act (Paulsen-Kind) - wellness incentives. H.R. 2753, Securing Care for Seniors Act (Black) - MA payment and enrollment issues, wellness incentives. H.R, 2960, Medicare Prescription Drug Integrity Act of 2013 (Pallone) - Part D drug utilization review. H.R. 3512, Seniors' Health Care Choice Act (Heck) - MA open enrollment period. H.R. 3890, Better Care, Lower Cost Act (Paulsen-Welch) - delivery models for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions. H.R. 4015, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act (Burgess) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, ACA individual mandate delay. H.R. 4160, Keep the Promise to Seniors Act (Ellmers) - blocking Medicare Part D proposed rule. H.R. 4302, Protecting Access to Medicare Act (Pitts) - 12-month Medicare SGR patch, Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans, Appropriate Use Criteria for Advanced Diagnostic Imaging, Medicare sequestration cuts, Other Medicare-Medicaid Extenders. H.R. 4484, Strengthening Healthcare Options for Vulnerable Populations Act (Sinema) - MA special needs plans. H.R. 4998, MA Participant Bill of Rights Act (DeLauro) - MA plan provider networks. H.R. 5113, Protecting Seniors' Medicare Choices from Obamacare Act (Coffman) - MA stabilization program. H.R. 5183, Value Based Insurance Design for Better Care Act (Black) - MA demonstration to test VBID methodologies. H.R. 5364, CHIP Extension and Improvement Act (Pallone) - federal CHIP funding. Draft Bill, Protecting the Integrity of Medicare Act (Brady) - preventing fraud in Medicare and Medicaid. S. 11, Fiscal Sustainability Act (Corker) - Medicare, Medigap, Medicaid issues. S. 25 (Hatch) - extension of Medicare sequestration cuts. S. 117, Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (Klobuchar) - Medicare Part D price negotiations. S. 324, Puerto Rico Medicare Part B Equity Act (Schumer). S. 408, Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act (Durbin) - Medicare Part D changes. S. 569, Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act (Brown) - Medicare coverage of skilled nursing care. S. 1123, Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures Act (Carper-Coburn) - fighting fraud and abuse. S. 1228, Medicare Better Health Rewards Program Act (Wyden-Portman) - wellness incentives. S. 1787, Medicaid Managed Care Responsibility and Equity Act (Rockefeller) - medical loss ratio requirement for Medicaid managed care organizations. S. 1871, SGR Repeal and Medicare Beneficiary Access Act (Senate Finance Committee) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, MA Special Needs Plans, Cost Plans, QI and TMA programs. S. 1932, Better Care, Lower Cost Act (Wyden-Isakson) - delivery models for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions. S. 1980, Medicaid and CHIP Continuous Quality Act (Rockefeller) - 12 month continuous enrollment. S. 2000, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act (Senate Finance Committee) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms. S. 2110, SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act (Wyden) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, Medicare and Medicaid extenders. S. 2122, Responsible Medicare SGR Repeal and Beneficiary Access Improvement Act (Hatch) - SGR repeal, quality- and value-based payment reforms, ACA individual mandate repeal. S. 2361, Stop SCAMS Act (Nelson-Collins) - reducing Medicare fraud. S. 2461, CHIP Extension Act (Rockefeller) --- federal CHIP funding. S. 2552, MA Participant Bill of Rights Act (Brown-Blumenthal) - MA plan provider networks. S. 2783, Value Based Insurance Design for Better Care Act (Thune) - MA demonstration to test VBID methodologies.

Client expense: Not reported · Firm income: $30,000

Government targets: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SENATE

H.R. 855 - Optometric Equity in Medicaid Act, Federal mandates for Medicaid of optometric medical & surgical coverage, all sections SGR - Medicare Physician Payment Reform H.R. 702, Access to Frontline Health Care Act, all sections H.R. 1427, Truth in Health Marketing Act, all sections H.R. 351, Protecting Seniors Access to Medicare Act, all sections S. 351, Protecting Seniors Access to Medicare Act, all sections P.L. 111-192, Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010, all sections related to physicians and vision P.L. 111-148 Affordable Care Act, modifications: 1. Reducing regulatory/costly burdens on medical practices - relief from regulatory penalties 2. Preserving patient access to office ancillary testing services 3. Essential Benefits - Children's Vision 4. Independent Payment Advisory Board H.R. 920, National Health Service Corps Improvement Act H.R. 1331, Electronic Health Records Improvement Act P.L. 113-54, Drug Quality & Security Act, all sections H.R. 4015/S 2000, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act H.R. 4302, Protecting access to Medicare Act ASC Quality Reporting Program Medicare Advantage Participant Bill of Rights Act (S2552/HR4998), all sections Qualified Clinical Data Registry Issues - Proposed 2015 Physician Schedule Rule

Client expense: $190,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), SENATE

Advocate for improved access to specialty drugs for patients with chronic conditions (H.R. 460, Patients' Access to Treatments Act of 2013). Advocate for truth in advertising for health care providers (H.R. 1427, Truth in Healthcare Marketing Act of 2013). Lobby Members of Congress to join the Congressional Skin Cancer Caucus.Lobby Congress to protect and preserve the in-office use of compounded pharmaceuticals without a patient prescription (H.R. 3204, Drug Quality and Security Act/Public Law No: 113-54). Lobby Congress on legislation to remove non-discrimination requirements relating to health care providers. (H.R. 2817, Protect Patient Access to Quality Health Professionals Act of 2013). Advocate for legislation that would allow for Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) to be used to cover over-the-counter (OTC) drugs (S. 1647, H.R. 2835, Restoring Access to Medication Act). Advocate for adequate and accurate network coverage for dermatologic care within Medicare Advantage and health insurance exchange networks (S. 2552/H.R. 4998, Medicare Advantage Participant Bill of Rights Act of 2014). Lobby Congress on legislation to create a transparent and predictable review process for sunscreen ingredients (S. 2141/H.R. 4250 Sunscreen Innovation Act). Lobby Congress on issues related to telemedicine (H.R. 5380, the Medicare Telehealth Parity Act). Advocate on on use and availability of health care data.

Client expense: $416,696 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SENATE

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps,provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Increase Medicare Fee Schedule payments to make primary care competitive in the market with other physician career and specialty choices; create a fast track authority to develop and implement new physician payment models that better align payment with effective, efficient, patient-centered care such as the Patient Centered Medical Home; provide a voluntary shared savings program, Accountable Care Organizations, that promotes accountability for services delivered to a defined Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) patient population with the goals of increasing the quality and efficiency of services delivered; provide separate Medicare payment for specific care coordination services provided principally by primary care physicians; revise Medicare budget neutrality rules to recognize the value of primary care in reducing Medicare baseline spending; increase the accuracy of physician work relative value units under the Medicare physician fee schedule; improve the accuracy of practice expense RVUs under the Medicare Fee Schedule; increase Medicare bonus payments for primary care services provided in designated shortage areas; provide stable, positive, predictable updates under Medicares reimbursement formula; and replacing the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula with a long term solution that provides for stable, predictable updates for physicians (H.R. 3961). Urged Congress to enact legislation that would provide stable payments for all physician specialties for at least five years while providing higher updates for undervalued evaluation and management services, require that different payment models (including Patient-Centered Medical Homes) be pilot-tested on a voluntary basis during the five year period of stable payments, and designate a specific transition period for broad adoption of the new models that have been shown to be the most effective based on the pilots. Urged enactment of the Medicare Physician Payment Innovation Act (H.R. 574), as introduced in Feb. 2013 by Representatives Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) and Joe Heck (R-NV). This legislation would eliminate the SGR once and for all and transition to better payment and delivery systems that are aligned with value. Specifically, H.R. 574 would repeal the SGR formula, provide more than 5 years of stable physician payments, with positive increases for all physician services, and higher payments for primary care, preventive and care coordination services, and establishes a process for practices to transition to new, more effective, models of care by 2018.Advocated for the Patient-Centered Medical Home model should be scaled up for broad Medicare adoption, recognized, through the medical neighborhood concept, that specialty and subspecialty practices, hospitals, and other healthcare professionals and entities that provide treatment to the patient need to be recognized and provided with incentivesboth non-financial and financialfor engaging in patient-centered practices that complement and support the efforts of the PCMH to provide high quality, efficient, coordinated care; advocated for ACPs High Value, Cost-Conscious Care Initiative, which includes clinical, public policy, and educational components, designed to help physicians and patients understand the benefits, harms, and costs of an intervention and whether it provides good value, as well as to slow the unsustainable rate of health care cost increases while preserving high-value, high-quality care. Advocated for halting the nearly 25 percent cut in physician payments resulting from the flawed SGR formula, which was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2014; Advocated for H.R. 2810, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Beneficiary Access Act of 2013, which would repeal the SGR and transition to a new value-based payment and delivery system; Advocated for H.R. 4015/S.2000, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014, legislation introduced on Feb. 6, 2014 to repeal the SGR and transition to a new value-based payment and delivery system. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). FY2015 Appropriations: Advocated for the highest level of funding possible for the Labor-HHS-Education bill within the discretionary cap established by the Budget Control Act (BCA); Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps, Community Health Centers Fund, National Health Care Workforce Commission, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Operations and Management of Exchanges. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Advocated to federal health agencies that wellness programs must not be used as a means to discriminate against the sick and vulnerable. Wellness programs must be developed to encourage prevention and improve health rather than penalize those who are medically unable to meet wellness program goals; Advocated that employers and health plans should fund programs proven to be effective in reducing obesity, stopping smoking, deterring alcohol abuse, and promoting wellness and providing coverage or subsidies for individuals to participate in such programs. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories.State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Essential Health Benefits: Commented on the proposed rule regarding essential benefits, actuarial value, and accreditation as issued by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services on November 20, 2012; Advocated that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201, The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577, the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487, the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013, and legislation to permanently reauthorize the Conrad State 30 J-1 visa waiver program through S. 616, the Conrad State 30 and Physician Access Act.Medicaid Pay Parity: Advocated for extending for at least two more years, beyond 2014, the Medicaid primary care payment increase, as enacted under the Affordable Care Act, which has only recently been implemented in a majority of states, and (2) including physicians practicing obstetrics and gynecology as qualified specialties, subject to the current eligibility requirement that at least 60 percent of their Medicaid billings are the primary care services as defined by the authorizing legislation, for the purposes of qualifying for the Medicaid primary care increases; Advocated for at least a two-year extension of the Medicaid payment parity provision beyond its 2014 expiration date, namely through S. 2694, the Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act. Tobacco Regulation: Expressed strong opposition to House appropriators to any amendment that would exempt any type of cigar from regulation under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, P.L. 111-31, or would impede the rulemaking process the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has initiated to determine the appropriate level of oversight for tobacco products not currently regulated by the agency; the FDA should retain the authority to regulate all tobacco products, including cigars, and should be permitted to use a science-based process for determining those regulations; Advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act of 2014, which gives the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission the authority to require the use of child-proof packaging on liquid nicotine containers sold to consumers. Medicares Prior Authorization Process for Certain Durable Medical Equipment: Commented in July 2014 to CMS on the proposed rule requesting clarification and making recommendations on changes to the Medicare benefit structure to ensure that any proposed changes not increase the administrative burden on physicians or other health care professionals.

Client expense: $270,324 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE

Preserving Access to Primary Care Services: Address the shortage of primary care physicians; designate primary care as a shortage profession; provide scholarships and loan forgiveness in exchange for primary care service commitments to practice in critical shortage areas; provide grants for medical school mentorship programs and primary care training in community health centers; increase Title VII funding for primary care health programs; increase funding for the National Health Service Corps,provide regulatory relief for primary care physicians; H.R. 7192/S. 1174, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (111th Congress). Support Implementation and Improvement of the Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) by: Expanding coverage and improving Medicare benefits; Providing needed protections to guard against insurance practices that unfairly limit, deny or rescind coverage based on health status; public and private health insurers should encourage preventive health care by providing full coverage, with no cost-sharing, for preventive services recommended by an expert advisory group, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; Ensuring access to primary care physicians; and beginning to bend the cost curve; Prohibiting insurers from excluding or charging excessive rates to children based on pre-existing conditions, which later will be expanded to all persons; Covering young adults on their parents' plans; Eliminating lifetime and annual limits on health insurance coverage; Requiring that health insurers spend more on patient care and less on administration; support enactment of S. 248, the Empowering States to Innovate Act, which amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to: (1) allow states to apply for waivers of certain health insurance coverage requirements in such Act (including requirements for the establishment of qualified health plans and health insurance exchanges) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2014 (currently, January 1, 2017), and (2) require the waiver application process to begin not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act; Phasing out the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; Eliminating patient cost-sharing for preventive services offered by Medicare or private insurers; Increasing Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care physicians; Establishing a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help physicians and patients make care decisions based on the best available evidence; Creating a new Center on Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to fund pilots of delivery models to improve outcomes and reduce costs, including patient-centered medical homes; Training more primary care physicians through the National Health Service Corps, Title VII health professions funding, and redistributing unused graduate medical education positions to primary care specialties facing shortages; Beginning in 2014, ensuring that nearly all Americans have access to coverage either through subsidized private health insurance offered by state health exchanges or through Medicaid, if they don't already have access to coverage through an employer, Medicare, or another public program. Medicare Physician Payment Reform: Increase Medicare Fee Schedule payments to make primary care competitive in the market with other physician career and specialty choices; create a fast track authority to develop and implement new physician payment models that better align payment with effective, efficient, patient-centered care such as the Patient Centered Medical Home; provide a voluntary shared savings program, Accountable Care Organizations, that promotes accountability for services delivered to a defined Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) patient population with the goals of increasing the quality and efficiency of services delivered; provide separate Medicare payment for specific care coordination services provided principally by primary care physicians; revise Medicare budget neutrality rules to recognize the value of primary care in reducing Medicare baseline spending; increase the accuracy of physician work relative value units under the Medicare physician fee schedule; improve the accuracy of practice expense RVUs under the Medicare Fee Schedule; increase Medicare bonus payments for primary care services provided in designated shortage areas; provide stable, positive, predictable updates under Medicares reimbursement formula; and replacing the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula with a long term solution that provides for stable, predictable updates for physicians (H.R. 3961). Urged Congress to enact legislation that would provide stable payments for all physician specialties for at least five years while providing higher updates for undervalued evaluation and management services, require that different payment models (including Patient-Centered Medical Homes) be pilot-tested on a voluntary basis during the five year period of stable payments, and designate a specific transition period for broad adoption of the new models that have been shown to be the most effective based on the pilots. Urged enactment of the Medicare Physician Payment Innovation Act (H.R. 574), as introduced in Feb. 2013 by Representatives Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) and Joe Heck (R-NV). This legislation would eliminate the SGR once and for all and transition to better payment and delivery systems that are aligned with value. Specifically, H.R. 574 would repeal the SGR formula, provide more than 5 years of stable physician payments, with positive increases for all physician services, and higher payments for primary care, preventive and care coordination services, and establishes a process for practices to transition to new, more effective, models of care by 2018.Advocated for the Patient-Centered Medical Home model should be scaled up for broad Medicare adoption, recognized, through the medical neighborhood concept, that specialty and subspecialty practices, hospitals, and other healthcare professionals and entities that provide treatment to the patient need to be recognized and provided with incentivesboth non-financial and financialfor engaging in patient-centered practices that complement and support the efforts of the PCMH to provide high quality, efficient, coordinated care; advocated for ACPs High Value, Cost-Conscious Care Initiative, which includes clinical, public policy, and educational components, designed to help physicians and patients understand the benefits, harms, and costs of an intervention and whether it provides good value, as well as to slow the unsustainable rate of health care cost increases while preserving high-value, high-quality care. Advocated for halting the nearly 25 percent cut in physician payments resulting from the flawed SGR formula, which was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2014; Advocated for H.R. 2810, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Beneficiary Access Act of 2013, which would repeal the SGR and transition to a new value-based payment and delivery system; Advocated for H.R. 4015/S.2000, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014, legislation introduced on Feb. 6, 2014 to repeal the SGR and transition to a new value-based payment and delivery system. Medical Education: Provide incentives to medical schools, community health centers, or hospitals, to increase the numbers of physicians choosing primary care; authorize HHS to selectively eliminate Graduate Medical Education (GME) caps for residency programs in primary care, advocated for S. 1627, which would increase the number of Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents by 15 percent (approximately 15,000 slots) over five years, requiring at least 50 percent of the new positions to be allocated to specialties facing a current shortage; Advocated to protect Medicare beneficiary access to health care services by preserving existing Medicare financing for Graduate Medical Education (GME). FY2015 Appropriations: Advocated for the highest level of funding possible for the Labor-HHS-Education bill within the discretionary cap established by the Budget Control Act (BCA); Supported funding to "improve health care quality, enhance consumer choice, advance patient safety, improve efficiency, reduce medical errors, and broaden access to essential services; Advocated for funding for AHRQ, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); Title VII, Section 747, Primary Care Training and Enhancement; National Health Service Corps, Community Health Centers Fund, National Health Care Workforce Commission, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Operations and Management of Exchanges. Public Health Programs and Funding: Increase funding to accomplish the core missions and activities of the major federal public health agencies, including: biomedical and behavioral research, disease prevention and health promotion, access to safety net health care services, health professions education, mental health and substance abuse, health services research, health care for American Indians and Alaska natives, food and drug safety. Advocated to federal health agencies that wellness programs must not be used as a means to discriminate against the sick and vulnerable. Wellness programs must be developed to encourage prevention and improve health rather than penalize those who are medically unable to meet wellness program goals; Advocated that employers and health plans should fund programs proven to be effective in reducing obesity, stopping smoking, deterring alcohol abuse, and promoting wellness and providing coverage or subsidies for individuals to participate in such programs. Improving Access to Primary Care in the Context of Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Legislation (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3590/H.R. 4872): Ensure that all Americans will have access to affordable coverage. Provide sliding scale subsidies based on income to buy coverage from qualified plans; Qualified plans should: provide evidence-based benefits, including preventive services; and be prohibited from excluding persons with pre-existing conditions, charging them more, cherry-picking enrollees, or cancelling or failing to renew coverage; Expand Medicaid to cover all persons below the Federal Poverty Level and ensure fair payments to participating physicians; As coverage becomes affordable, all persons should participate and coverage should be guaranteed; Responsibility for financing should be shared by individuals, employers and government. Regarding the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 16, 2011, the College advocated for striking a balance between comprehensiveness and affordability while giving States some freedom to determine a package that best serve the needs of residents. The College believes that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within and across categories.State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Advocated to repeal the mandate that requires a prescription for over-the-counter medications purchased through a Health Savings Account. Advocated for legislation that would provide coverage under Medicare for voluntary consultations between doctors and patients to discuss advance care plans, as included in H.R. 1173, the Personalize Your Care Act of 2013; advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights, H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, that would prevent Medicare Advantage plans from terminating physicians from Medicare Advantage plan networks without sufficient notice or cause. Essential Health Benefits: Commented on the proposed rule regarding essential benefits, actuarial value, and accreditation as issued by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services on November 20, 2012; Advocated that strong oversight is needed when determining the initial benchmark plan (and whether it reflects the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act) and how the package will be updated, particularly if insurers are given the ability to substitute benefits within categories. State and the federal government must work in concert with physicians, health care providers and payers to determine and promote use of clinically effective and cost-effective services that result in improved patient health while bending the cost curve. Pilot test new Medicare payment models that re-align incentives to support effective, efficient, patient-centered, coordinated care. Priority should be given to models designed to support the value of services provided by primary care physicians as well as to models that would create incentives, across physician specialties and sites of services, to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided. Policy criteria for selecting the most promising models for pilot testing should be developed, in consultation with outside experts; The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), which has shown great promise in meeting the policy objectives suggested above, should be among the models selected for broader testing on a national pilot basis; the establishing of a new CMS Innovation Center to pilot-test new payment models, such as the medical home; the use of the medical home model for treatment or services under private health plans, the requirement of health plans to provide incentives to promote and report on medical home services provided, the establishment of community health teams and a primary care extension program to educate and support primary care practices in the delivery of medical home services, and the establishment of a demonstration project to educate physicians and other clinicians in training in the competencies required to deliver care consistent with the medical home care model. National workforce policy to ensure sufficient numbers of primary care and other physicians: Urged support for a national workforce commission to recommend national goals relating to the numbers and distribution of physicians and other health care professionals, including increasing the supply of primary care physicians; Fully fund the commission at levels authorized in the Affordable Care Act; Increase the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions available each year in adult primary care specialties; Provide new loan repayment and medical school scholarship programs in exchange for primary care service in critical shortage health facilities, or in critical shortage areas of the country; Increase funding for scholarships and loan repayment programs under Title VII as well as increase funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); Provide new practice-entry bonus for scholarship or loan repayment award recipients who remain in underserved communities after completion of service obligation. Reform the medical liability system and the enormous costs associated with frivolous lawsuits and defensive medicine: Impose caps on non-economic damages; and test and fund new models--like health courts, which would have cases heard by an expert panel rather than by a lay jury; Advocated for the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act (H.R. 4106), which establishes a framework for health care liability lawsuits to undergo review by independent medical review panels if health care professionals (practicing physicians or their agents or employees) allege adherence to applicable clinical practice guidelines in the provision of health care goods or services. Workforce: Advocated for H.R. 1201, The Training Tomorrow's Doctors Today Act, S. 577, the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013, H.R. 487, the Primary Care Workforce Access and Improvement Act of 2013, and legislation to permanently reauthorize the Conrad State 30 J-1 visa waiver program through S. 616, the Conrad State 30 and Physician Access Act.Medicaid Pay Parity: Advocated for extending for at least two more years, beyond 2014, the Medicaid primary care payment increase, as enacted under the Affordable Care Act, which has only recently been implemented in a majority of states, and (2) including physicians practicing obstetrics and gynecology as qualified specialties, subject to the current eligibility requirement that at least 60 percent of their Medicaid billings are the primary care services as defined by the authorizing legislation, for the purposes of qualifying for the Medicaid primary care increases; Advocated for at least a two-year extension of the Medicaid payment parity provision beyond its 2014 expiration date, namely through S. 2694, the Ensuring Access to Primary Care for Women & Children Act. Tobacco Regulation: Expressed strong opposition to House appropriators to any amendment that would exempt any type of cigar from regulation under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, P.L. 111-31, or would impede the rulemaking process the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has initiated to determine the appropriate level of oversight for tobacco products not currently regulated by the agency; the FDA should retain the authority to regulate all tobacco products, including cigars, and should be permitted to use a science-based process for determining those regulations; Advocated in Aug. 2014 for the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act of 2014, which gives the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission the authority to require the use of child-proof packaging on liquid nicotine containers sold to consumers. Medicares Prior Authorization Process for Certain Durable Medical Equipment: Commented in July 2014 to CMS on the proposed rule requesting clarification and making recommendations on changes to the Medicare benefit structure to ensure that any proposed changes not increase the administrative burden on physicians or other health care professionals.

Client expense: $101,924 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), President of the U.S., SENATE

HR 2190 & S 1206 - Medicare Drug Savings Act of 2011: To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to require drug manufacturers to provide drug rebates for drugs dispensed to low-income individuals under the Medicare prescription drug benefit program. HR 2753 - Securing Care for Seniors Act of 2013: To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to improve Medicare Advantage and for other purposes. HR 2810 - Medicare Patient Access and Quality Improvement Act of 2013: Amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to reform the sustainable growth rate and Medicare payment for physicians services and for other purposes. HR 3077 - TELE-MED Act of 2013: Amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to permit certain Medicare providers licensed in a state to provide telemedicine services to Medicare beneficiaries in a different state. HR 3890 - Better Care Lower Cost Act: To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to establish a Medicare Better Care Program to provide integrated care for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions. HR 4160 - Keep the Promise to Seniors Act of 2014: To prohibit further action on the proposed rule regarding change to the Medicare prescription drug benefit program. HR 4998 - Medicare Advantage Participation Bill of Rights Acts of 2014: To enhance beneficiary and provider protections and improve transparency in the Medicare Advantage market and for other purposes. HR 5183 & S 2783 - Value Based Insurance Design for Better Care Act of 2011: To establish a demonstration program requiring the utilization of value based insurance design to demonstrate that reducing the copayment or co-insurance charged to Medicare beneficiaries for selected high-value prescription medications and clinical services can increase their utilization and ultimately improve clinical outcomes and lower health care expenditures. HR 5380 - Medicare Telehealth Parity Act of 2014: To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for a phased in expansion of telehealth coverage under Medicare program. S 1932 - Better Care and Lower Costs Act: Amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to establish a Medicare Better Care Program to provide integrated care for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions, and for other purposes. S 2000 - The SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act: Amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to repeal the Medicare sustainable growth rate and improve Medicare payments for physicians and other professionals and for other purposes. S 2552 - Medicare Advantage Participant Bill of Rights Act of 2014: To enhance beneficiary & provider protections and improve transparency in the Medicare Advantage market and for other purposes.

Client expense: $130,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), SENATE

H.R. 5380 The Medicare Telehealth Parity Act of 2014 S. 2552 The Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights Act H.R. 4998, The Medicare Advantage Participants Bill of Rights Act S. 2553 The Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 (IMPACT Act) H.R. 4994, The Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 (IMPACT Act) S. 1932 The Better Care, Lower Cost Act H.R. 3890, The Better Care, Lower Cost Act S. 1422 The Preventive Health Savings Act H.R. 2663, The Preventive Health Savings Act H.R. 5279, The Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Tax (SWEET) Act S.2574, The Healthy Families Act of 2014 H.R. 1024, The Medication Therapy Management Empowerment Act S. 2240, The Medicare Choices Empowerment and Protection Act S. 2000 SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014 H.R. 4015 SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014 HR. 4418, the Expanding the Availability of Medicare Data Act H.R. 2843 Medicare Data Access for Transparency and Accountability Act S. 1180 Medicare Data Access for Transparency and Accountability Act H.R. 3077, TELEmedicine for MEDicare (TELE-MED) Act H.R. 4190, a bill that would will allow Medicare reimbursement for Part B services performed by a pharmacist in underserved communities, among other activities. H.R.1070, Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening Act of 2013 H.R. 1074 National Diabetes Clinical Care Commission Bill S. 539, National Diabetes Clinical Care Commission Bill

Client expense: $160,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Executive Office of the President (EOP), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Food & Drug Administration (FDA), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), SENATE

General Medicare Protection, Repeal of Sustainable Growth Rate: H.R. 574, Prevention of Fraud, Waste, and Abuse: H.R. 2305 and H.R. 3090 and S. 1123 and S. 1019 and H.R. 4998 and S. 2552, Savings on Medical Expenses: H.R. 4104 and H.R. 1179 and S. 569, Workforce Advancements: S. 2251 and H.R. 4445.

Client expense: $40,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SENATE