Endocrine Insider
January 7, 2010

(Seel Full Isssue)

The Senate passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (HR 3590) on December 24, 2009, and included as part of that legislation a two-year fix of the payment cuts to DXA services performed in physicians’ offices.  The provision, which sets DXA payment rates at 70 percent of the 2006 level (approximately $98) for 2010 and 2011, was not included in the House-passed version of the bill. 

The Society has been working aggressively on this issue to support its members who provide this vital test to patients in their offices.  A coalition of specialty societies, including the Endocrine Society, has worked with members of Congress, including Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Representatives Shelley Berkley (D-NV) and Michael Burgess (R-TX), who sponsored standalone legislation to identify a solution to the payment cuts that have lowered DXA payment rates by more than 65 percent since 2007.  The Society and the National Osteoporosis Foundation were pivotal in gaining Senator Lincoln’s support for the legislation.  Since that time, the coalition has been building support on Capitol Hill for the legislation, which ultimately led to Senator Lincoln’s inclusion of the language in the health reform legislation developed by the Senate Finance Committee. 

House and Senate conferees are working on melding the bills passed by each chamber into one comprehensive bill.  Congressional leaders have expressed their intent to send a final bill to the President by the end of January.  The Society and its partners will continue their efforts to have the DXA provision included in the final bill signed by the President.