The NASS Advocacy Committee and staff are closely monitoring health care reform actions currently underway in the Senate. This week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid began debate on the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” NASS and its colleagues in the Alliance of Specialty Medicine have reviewed this measure and believe that it does not adequately address the concerns that we have previously presented to Congress. The bill fails to provide a long-term fix to Medicare’s flawed reimbursement formula, lacks proven medical liability reforms and would place important health policy decisions into the hands of an unaccountable bureaucratic agency that lacks clinical expertise and oversight.

For the reasons outlined above, NASS and the Alliance of Specialty Medicine drafted a letter to the Senate opposing this bill. View the letter in its entirety here.

Contact the NASS Advocacy staff at advocacy@spine.org or (630) 230-3600 with any questions relating to NASS’ efforts on health care reform.