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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.C.R. NO. |
54 |
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TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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HOUSE CONCURRENT
RESOLUTION
REQUESTING AN INCREASE FOR MEDICAre REIMBURSEMENT IN HAWAII.
WHEREAS, federal statutes generally require the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, through its Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to establish the Medicare fee schedules for all Medicare localities in the nation and its territories; and
WHEREAS, under the fee schedules, each medical service, treatment, or procedure, as identified by its CPT code, is assigned a fee which is basically the product of a set of relative value units multiplied by a conversion factor; and
WHEREAS, each fee is adjusted upward or downward for each Medicare locality through a set of geographic practice cost indices, which are multiplied with the corresponding set of relative value units; and
WHEREAS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services generally establishes the numeric values for the relative value units, conversion factors, and geographic practice cost indices; and
WHEREAS, in 2003, Congress, instead of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, specifically established the numeric values of the geographic practice cost indices applicable to Alaska; and
WHEREAS, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, P.L. No. 108-173, section 602(2), established one floor for the geographic practice cost indices for services rendered in Alaska in the years 2004 and 2005 by specifying that:
For purposes of payment for services furnished in Alaska on or after January 1, 2004, and before January 1, 2006, after calculating the practice expense, malpractice, and work geographic indices in clauses (i), (ii), and (iii) of subparagraph (A) and in subparagraph (B), the Secretary shall increase any such index to 1.67 if such index would otherwise be less than 1.67.;
and
WHEREAS, the Congressional history behind this provision, as expressed in the conference agreement in House Conference Report 108-391, merely specifies that:
In calendar years 2004 and 2005, for physician services provided in Alaska, the Secretary is required to increase geographic practice cost indices to a level of 1.67 for each of the work, practice expense and malpractice cost indices.;
and
WHEREAS, in contrast, the geographic practice cost indices for Hawaii in 2005, for example, were significantly lower at 1.001 for work, 1.118 for practice expense, and 0.800 for malpractice cost; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2009, the Senate concurring, that the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation are requested to pursue federal legislation to increase reimbursements to physicians rendering services in Hawaii; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.
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OFFERED BY: |
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Medicare Reimbursements