June 28, 2012

The Supreme Court upheld most of the Affordable Care Act.

APMA and its 12,000 podiatric physicians have long supported strengthening our health-care delivery system through improving quality and outcomes, broadening insurance coverage, placing a renewed emphasis on delivery-system reforms that promote prevention and access to specialty care, and slowing escalating costs. 

Today's decision by the Supreme Court to uphold most of the Affordable Care Act is an affirmation of many bipartisan ideas aimed at delivering high-quality care to all patients and restoring the patient-physician relationship to the core of our health-care system. The Affordable Care Act made fundamental and important changes in our health-care system.

However, there are still many improvements that can be made. Health-care reform is, and should remain, an ongoing effort. To this end, APMA urges Congress and the administration to work in a bipartisan manner to improve and build upon the law. Specifically, we urge the enactment of the following policies:

• Meaningful and comprehensive medical liability reforms;
• A new Medicare payment formula for physicians, thus ending a decade of volatility as a result of the sustainable growth rate (SGR);
• Ensuring Medicaid beneficiaries have equal and full access to foot and ankle care provided by podiatric physicians;
• Repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) or at least reforms that provide Congress greater involvement and oversight of the IPAB; and
• Eliminating the requirement that physicians provide written authorization for over-the-counter medications reimbursed through a flexible spending account.

APMA and its members look forward to continuing to play an integral part in our health-care delivery system to help keep America walking, and are eager to work, in a bipartisan manner, with Congress and the administration on identifying, developing, and enacting policies that will further advance access to affordable and quality health care for individuals, improve our nation's health-care system, and reduce the overall costs of health care.

In an aging society with our shared goals of encouraging wellness and healthy lifestyles, it is more important than ever to ensure individuals receive the expert foot and ankle care they need through access to preventive health measures to maintain active ambulation and avoid complications from such prevalent conditions as diabetes, arthritis, and neurologic and circulatory disorders.

View the full Supreme Court ruling.

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