Doctors needed tomorrow for Payer Accountability
At 9 a.m. tomorrow, there will be a final debate and vote on Payer Accountability. Any physicians or medical students who can come to legislative plaza tomorrow, April 22, from 9-10 a.m. in your white coats would help TMA send a strong message to legislators.
History: TMA’s payer accountability bill, also called the Healthcare Provider Stability Act, passed overwhelmingly in the State Senate with a vote of 27-4 last week.
TMA has been advocating for a payer accountability bill and negotiating with representatives of the health insurance industry for three years. If the bill becomes law, it would be the first of its kind in the nation, said sponsor Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, on the Senate floor last Wednesday.
The Senate bill would limit changes to fee schedules to once in a 12-month contract period and changes in payment policy, procedure or methodology to four times in a 12-month period as well as requiring a 90-day notice of fee schedule changes.
Watson said that the bill provides transparency and contract stability. “The bill sets in place what I would consider a check and balance between providers and payers.” The Senate bill provides stability for healthcare providers, Watson said. “That’s important, particularly to smaller group physicians or individual practitioners who do their whole business model a year in advance based on an anticipated rate of pay from the payer.”
See video of Senate discussion on the bill here.
