(June 16, 2008) AACOM has advocated for Congress to impose a moratorium on seven Medicaid regulations that would eliminate Medicaid funding for a variety of programs, most notably graduate medical education. Both the House and Senate now have responded to the efforts of the community. By a veto-proof margin of 75-22, the Senate passed an emergency supplemental spending package that includes language that prohibits the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services from implementing a proposed rule that would eliminate Medicaid graduate medical education payments to teaching hospitals. The House had already passed stand-alone legislation by a veto-proof majority that would place a one-year moratorium on the implementation of this proposed rule.
However, as this process moves forward, it is unclear if House leadership will place the provisions into its version of the emergency supplemental spending bill. AACOM may call on you again to ask your representatives to support their inclusion. President Bush had threatened to veto this legislation, and the advocacy community must work to retain the veto-proof majorities in both the House and the Senate. By the time this moratorium expires on April 1, 2009, a new administration will be in office, and members anticipate that a similar rule will not be proposed.
See other Graduate Medical Education information.