Congressman Kevin Yoder of Kansas (R-3rd) with RBMA Board member, Sarah Mountford, RCC, CPC
Meeting in person with members of congress, their staffs and representatives from key Congressional committees is one of the best ways for the RBMA and its members to be heard.
Fairfax, VA (PRWEB) March 28, 2016
Elected officials pay close attention to their constituents, especially so in an election year, and the Radiology Business Management Association took full advantage of this fact in March when it held its inaugural Hill Day in-person lobbying event. Through tight coordination, RBMA members from the Federal Affairs Committee and Board of Directors were able to hold 20 individual face-to-face meetings with local members and committees that had jurisdiction over health care. These included the powerful House Energy & Commerce, House Ways & Means and Senate Finance committees. The agenda included:
- Thanking legislators for support of the delay in implementation of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force screening mammography recommendations.
- Expressing appreciation to members of Congress who supported the reduction of the multiple procedure payment reduction for the professional component of advanced diagnostic imaging to 5 percent starting on January 1, 2017.
- Seeking “common sense” fix to the problem of overly burdensome post payment, supplemental medical reviews that ask radiologists and imaging centers for documentation they do not have because it is the responsibility of the ordering provider.
- Asking legislators for their assistance in directing the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to issue the technical format and location on the Medicare claim forms (paper and electronic) for the Clinical Decision Support (CDS) information if such guidance is not in the CY 2017 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) proposed rule. Radiology software vendors urgently need this information in order to adopt and test the CDS changes ahead of the January 1 implementation deadline.
“Meeting in person with members of congress, their staffs and representatives from key Congressional committees is one of the best ways for the RBMA and its members to be heard,” explained Jim Hamilton, RBMA’s President-Elect. “When you make the effort to travel to Washington, D.C., and meet with someone in government in person, you have an opportunity to make a personal connection and get more insight into a lawmaker’s perspective on an issue.”
To learn more about the RBMA’s radiology legislative issues, read its new weekly RBMA Washington Insider e-newsletter. In addition, the RBMA will present with RadPAC at the RBMA Radiology Summit in Colorado Springs, Colorado, from April 24-27.
The Radiology Business Management Association is a national not-for-profit association providing members with applied business information and intelligence applicable in any radiology setting. The RBMA has approximately 2,300 members involved in various management capacities in private practices, academic radiology groups, imaging centers and hospitals. The RBMA continues to be recognized as the leader for radiology-specific educational programs, products and services, publications and data.