12/16/2013    Michael Davis, JD

Podiatrists Added to Senate Version of SGR Bill

Michael Goodwin, President of OPEIU completed a
call with Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) Thursday
afternoon. The Senator called President Goodwin to
tell him that the Podiatry Amendment was in the
Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) Bill.

The Senate SGR Bill went through mark up in the
Finance Committee Thursday. Senator Baucus is
working to repeal the SGR and eliminate the annual
deadline that the current SGR causes. Senator
Schumer said, during mark up, that "The two
Charles E's" (Grassley and Schumer) agree that
they want the podiatry amendment in the MARKED UP
Bill. It was placed in and the marked up Bill and
the mark up was passed by the Committee.

This is the Senate version of the SGR bill.
Senator Schumer told President Goodwin that we
(podiatry) have to have an all out push on the
House to be sure that the Senate is "backed up"
when the Bill comes to conference. The House
version of the SGR bill does not have the podiatry
provision.

President Goodwin stated that "We (podiatry) need
to tell the House we want the amendment in."
Senator Hatch is in support of this marked up
Senate Bill and Senator Grassely is a co-sponsor,
so we have strong bi-partisan support. This bill
will go to Conference with House and this will be
the first time that our language is in a bill
going to Conference.

Schumer relied on the bipartisan support for the
amendment. Senator Schumer said "Everyone likes
Grassley", and "The two 'Charles E's' came
together for the podiatry amendment." Schumer's
action followed a note from Schumer to Goodwin on
Tuesday stating that he was going to do this.

APMA will issue an action plan for getting this
amendment before House members, Goodwin noted, and
all Guild and APMA members have to follow through.
"This can happen, but we all have to make the
final effort to contact the House members to urge
them to support this amendment in conference."

Michael Davis, JD, Executive Director, PPMA,
MQD2@aol.com

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