FPD Public News & Updates

As you hear more and more about “health care reform,” from the news, from your doctors, from your employers, it can become confusing, and you want to be sure you’re making the right decisions for you and your family.

To help you stay informed, we now feature sections that contain a variety of information that you might be interested in.

With all the resources available, and limited time to devote to sifting through it all, we try to put together a good mix of information and resources that can help you move forward in our 21st century health care system.

If you have a topic you want to see posted, or would like to know more about, please contact lyndafpd@aol.com.

MEMORANDUM

To: Palmer Florida Federation Bargaining Unit Members and Academic/ Support Staff

Fr: Jack Seddon, Executive Director

Date: April 12, 2010

Re: Dr. Cimino

As you are all aware, a short time ago clinical staff representatives requested the Federation conduct a “No Confidence Vote” with respect to Dr. Joseph Cimino. The vote was conducted and it was overwhelmingly concluded that the clinician concerns regarding Dr. Cimino’s leadership and general professional demeanor were seriously lacking.

The results of the “No Confidence” vote were shared with the Palmer Chancellor and other appropriate college administrators. Upon their receiving the results, several interviews with staff were conducted, both individually and collectively, with the Federation being present and following an apparent investigation into clinician concerns of Dr. Cimino, all those concerned were advised that appropriate action would be taken. Whatever action was contemplated apparently resulted in Dr. Cimino’s resignation from Palmer Florida.

While our members or the Federation do not relish the taking of such an extreme measure as a “No Confidence” vote, the fact of the matter is that our clinician members are professionals and deserve and will demand that they be treated in a professional manner. They will indeed hold anyone accountable whom they believe is interfering with their primary responsibility of providing quality care to patients.

If you are receiving this letter as a Federation member, your support regarding this important matter was instrumental in hopefully bringing a sad matter to an end. If you are not a member of the Federation or in the clinician bargaining unit but would like to be represented, enclosed for your consideration is either a membership application or an “authorization for representation” form which would have the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) conduct a secret ballot election for Federation representation.

If you are not represented for the purpose of collective bargaining, join your Palmer Campus clinician colleagues and your colleagues at Palmer West and at Davenport, IA - make Palmer Florida a 100% Federation campus. If you have any questions, please feel free to call.

Health Care Bill Is Now Law

The final fixes have been signed into the health care reform bill marking the historic first steps in the largest overhaul of the American health care system since the passage of Medicare in 1965. After more than a year of legislative bickering and grueling debates, sweeping changes will now begin to be made to our health care system. Strong opinions continue to be expressed, Republicans have declared that there will be “no cooperation” from them as they work on their strategy to “repeal and replace,” and Big Insurance has already started looking for loopholes (SEE sidebar on the left). So now the real work begins.

The bill will eventually affect just about every American by 2014, but there is a list of reforms that will begin within the next 6 months, including tax credits to 4 million small businesses to cover employees’ insurance; an end to recisions by insurance companies of customers who get sick; an end to caps on coverage; and a provision to allow young adults to remain on their parents’ policies until they are 26 years old.

To help you understand how it will affect or benefit you, stay tuned here to find out how. To begin with, check out below.

So you’re confused about what health care reform will actually mean for you? Don’t feel like reading the more than 2000-page bill yourself?

We’ll help you sort it all out.

In short, the new law puts us on a path to provide health care coverage for all Americans, empowers consumers over insurance companies and ensures we are moving to reduce health care costs in the long run. Now that the bill has passed the reconciliation process and will now be law, sweeping new policies will be ushered in. Many outlets are trying to tease out what this will mean for the average consumer. We’ve put together some information that will help you to understand it all. We will continue to sift through the many resources that have been providing information about this historic reform so you don’t have to. Check back often for updates.

It’s Disgusting!

The ink wasn’t even dry, and Big Insurance showed us why reform is so necessary. The New York Times reported that just days after President Obama signed the new health care law, insurance companies started trying to weasel out of provisions designed to end their abusive practices. Sick kids were their first target.

READ ABOUT IT HERE

BUT ...

Insurers Quickly Retreat

You Can Breathe A Little Easier -
“Doc Fix” Legislation Passed, You Get A Little Raise &

You Can Waive Extra Medicare Coinsurance Amount (although you may not want to)

The new “Doc Fix” legislation was signed late June, giving doctors another temporary reprieve of the 21.3% cuts to Medicare rates, which is now set for December 1. At the same time, doctors get a small “raise” of 2.2% for the next 6 months and they can waive the extra “doc fix” Medicare coinsurance amount, if they want to.

Since the raise in Medicare rates causes the coinsurance amount of patients to increase, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a directive that allows doctors to legally waive the extra amount instead of going through the hassle of collecting it. Typically, under regular Medicare, patients have a 20% coinsurance (or, 20% of the Medicare allowable amount) which doctors are obligated to collect. If they don’t, they risk violation of federal fraud and abuse laws. But since the 2.2% raise to the Medicare rates is retroactive to June 1, it could be complicated to collect the increased coinsurance amounts from the Medicare patients they had seen for the past month. So, the OIG has simplified the subject for physicians.

Of course this green light to waive the extra coinsurance amounts is NOT a requirement. Indeed, for office visits it may not be worth the hassle of collecting this additional money. But for physicians who have performed surgical procedures last month, where Medicare fees are in the thousands, it certainly would be worth going after the extra money.

One more thing to be aware of is that CMS was forced to start processing claims that had been suspended under a claims-holding period, but which had expired because of Congress’ procrastination on the “doc fix” legislation. Yet, CMS has promised that its carriers would automatically reprocess any June claims paid at the lower rates to reflect the higher rates. SO start your reprocessing today!

Organized medicine, including the Federation, has long expressed outrage over this potentially devastating reimbursement reduction, and continues efforts to put an end to these temporary, “band-aid” fixes that only increase the size of the cuts and the cost of reform. Everyone knows the problem is with the flawed formula in the Medicare payment methodology that causes the annual payment cut and everyone knows that short-term fixes just cannot fixed the long-term problem. So Congress needs to find a permanent solution once and for all.

Stay tuned for the latest updates.

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