Healthcare groups ponder D.C. strategy after elections

Healthcare industry groups are calculating what they can get done in the lame-duck Congress following the November elections and in the new session that follows, which could feature Republican control of both chambers.

Reaching an agreement to fund the government beginning Oct. 1 will top Congress' agenda, said Tom Nickels, the American Hospital Association's senior vice president for government relations. Healthcare reform-related issues the AHA wants to address this year include changes to the CMS Recovery Audit Contractor program and recalibrating hospital readmission quality scores to consider the socio-economic makeup of hospitals' patient populations. The AHA also will work to protect Medicare hospital funding from moves to use that money to pay for lawmakers' other priorities.

The American Medical Group Association will focus on refining Medicare's accountable care organization program and heading off Medicare Advantage cuts, said Chet Speed, the group's vice president for public policy.

Physician groups will be pushing to extend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provision bringing Medicaid payments to Medicare levels for primary care, said Anders Gilberg, the Medical Group Management Association's senior vice president for government affairs.

And medical groups again will try to repeal and replace Medicare's sustainable growth-rate formula for physician payment. But Speed predicted Congress would pass another nine- or 12-month temporary doc fix.

Medical devicemakers hope that if Republicans take the Senate, they can win repeal of Obamacare's medical-device tax. Some Senate Democrats in states that are home to devicemakers support the repeal.

“We've got over 400 (device) companies that employ 35,000 people in Minnesota, and we should not be stifling their innovation,” Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said. —Andis Robeznieks

Follow Andis Robeznieks on Twitter: @MHARobeznieks