PPAI LAW: PPAI Ramps Up Efforts To Make Its Mark On Healthcare Law


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PPAI LAW: PPAI Ramps Up Efforts To Make Its Mark On Healthcare Law

Issue: 2010jan

As healthcare legislation moves closer to a final vote in Congress, PPAI continues to educate and encourage members to speak out against potentially damaging language in the bills.

"When the Senate absorbed the Physician Payments Sunshine Act into broader healthcare reform, they modified that language to require only those products valued at $10 or more be reported," says Anne Lardner, PPAI senior manager of public affairs.

"On the surface this appears to be a victory for the promotional products industry. Unfortunately, the Senate included language that triggers reporting requirements for all items, regardless of value, once an annual total of $100 for a wide variety of payments and activities, not just promotional products, is reached."

Lardner adds that when the House absorbed PPSA into its bill, they modified the language of the bill so that only those items valued at $5 or more must be reported. Although the dollar amount for each item is lower, there is no "trigger" for reporting based on annual total of promotional products and other payments, and therefore there no limit on the number of promotional products with a value of less than $5 that can be given.

Believing that the trigger language in the Senate version is unfair and unreasonable and that method established by the House bill is fairer to the promotional products industry (it does not impose reporting requirements) despite assigning a lower dollar value to each transfer of value, the Association supports adopting the House method with the $10 limit per item, says Lardner.

Members of the promotional products industry are encouraged to contact their representatives and voice support for the PPSA of the House Healthcare Reform legislation if they increase the value to $10. Additionally, they are asked to let senators know of their opposition to the Senate's version of healthcare reform and that their legislation will likely cause profound harm to the promotional products industry.

At www.ppailaw.org, members can use prompts to send e-mails and call your senators and representatives. Scripts and phone numbers are provided.

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