ATRA Update on Medicare Bill

The following was recently transmitted from the American Therapeutic Recreation Association:

TO: All Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialists (CTRS)
FROM: G.T. Thompson, Co-Chair - Recreational Therapy Medicare Project (RTMP)
SUBJECT: H.R. 4248 Update

ACTION ALERT UPDATE

As you know ATRA’s House Bill, H.R. 4248 “The Ensuring Medicare Access To Recreational Therapy Act Of 2007” has been introduced in the United States House of Representatives.

Recreational Therapy professionals, consumers, students and other supportive individuals have been doing a great job of contacting Congress throughout the nation to request members of Congress to sign on as H.R. 4248 Bill Sponsors.

CURRENT STATUS: We have the Sponsor and 11 Cosponsors
officially listed as of December 21, 2007.

These Members of Congress that have signed-on include:

Rep Tauscher, Ellen O. [CA-10] (introduced 11/15/2007)
Rep Boucher, Rick [VA-9] - 12/12/2007
Rep Carnahan, Russ [MO-3] - 12/17/2007
Rep Cohen, Steve [TN-9] - 12/17/2007
Rep English, Phil [PA-3] - 11/15/2007
Rep Etheridge, Bob [NC-2] - 12/5/2007
Rep Gordon, Bart [TN-6] - 12/5/2007
Rep Peterson, John E. [PA-5] - 12/17/2007
Rep Rahall, Nick J., II [WV-3] - 12/11/2007
Rep Rehberg, Dennis R. [MT] - 12/12/2007
Rep Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana [FL-18] - 12/11/2007
Rep Wamp, Zach [TN-3] - 12/12/2007

Accessing the Library of Congress web site at THOMAS.gov and entering 4248 under the Legislation in Current Congress search function can obtain the current status of H.R. 4248.

RECENT EFFORTS:

H.R. 4248 Dear Colleague Letter Circulated

A “Dear Colleague” Letter circulated last week to all 435 Congressional Offices by Representative Tauscher and Representative English.

Medicare Bill passes that includes many temporary Medicare fixes / extensions, but not Recreational Therapy clarification

A slimmed-down Medicare package was passed that essentially pushes everything off until next year to address all over again. On Tuesday December 18th, the Senate passed this bill by unanimous consent and the House also passed the bill.

The final Medicare package leaves all NEW policies on the cutting room floor for now including the provisions of the “The Ensuring Medicare Access To Recreational Therapy Act Of 2007”.

The passed Bill includes a temporary update to the Medicare physician fee schedule and a number of simple extensions of existing policies that would expire if Congress did not pass this bill, particularly in the area of rural health provisions.

A whole host of policy provisions, including our Recreational Therapy coverage clarification, needs your advocacy over the course of the first six months of the new year. Because most of the provisions of this most recent Medicare Bill are only temporary, Congress will be required to take additional Medicare related action within the next six months. This provides us an excellent opportunity to build more support for H.R. 4248!

ACTION REQUESTED:

Continue to request that your United States Member of Congress (U.S. House of Representatives) sign-on as a co-sponsors. There is no time limit at this point.

Please be sure to emphasize:

CMS (Medicare) has verbally commented that this is zero budget and they would not oppose the language that we have had introduced.
This is about consumers getting access to services that are already being paid for by Medicare under the inpatient prospective payment systems..

Please keep Lisa Morgan updated at lmorgan@siskinrehab.org when your House member agrees to co-sponsor.