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<br />ATTACHMENT A <br /> <br />Fire & Life SafetyFire & Emergency Medical <br /> Services Department <br /> <br />Office of the Fire Chief Office of the Fire Chief <br /> <br />City of Springfield City of Eugene <br />nd <br />225 Fifth Street 1705 W. 2 Avenue <br />Springfield, OR 97477 Eugene, Oregon 97402 <br />(541) 726-3737 (541) 682-7130 <br />(541) 726-2297 FAX (541) 682-7116 FAX <br />www.springfieldfire.org www.eugene-or.gov <br /> <br /> <br />14 November 2007 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Congressman Peter DeFazio <br />2134 Rayburn H.O.B. <br />Washington, DC 20515 <br /> <br />SUBJ: Letter of Support for the Medicare Ambulance Payment Extension Act <br /> <br /> <br />Dear Congressman DeFazio: <br /> <br />The Cities of Eugene and Springfield urge you to help preserve patient access to critical <br />ambulance services by supporting the Medicare Ambulance Payment Extension Act (S. 1310 and <br />H.R. 2164) by Congressmen Mike McNulty, Tom Reynolds, Chip Pickering and Tom Allen. S. <br />1310 and H.R. 2164 would extend ambulance relief from the Medicare Modernization Act with a <br />5% increase through 2009 to rates under the Medicare ambulance fee schedule. Without prompt <br />action to bolster Medicare reimbursement, ambulance service providers in our communities and <br />across the nation will be forced to reduce essential emergency medical treatment and patient <br />transport. <br /> <br />Although Congress provided desperately-needed relief on a temporary basis to ambulance <br />service providers in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA), the MMA of 2003 <br />included a significant reduction in Medicare and Medicaid ambulance reimbursement. For <br />instance, while the MMA included short-term reimbursement adjustments including a 1% urban <br />and 2% rural increase, a mileage rate increase for longer transports and a payment boost for <br />ambulance transports in extremely rural or “super rural” areas, the 1% urban and 2% rural <br />increase expired at the end of last year and the regional adjustment has gone from being 80% to <br />only 20% of payment rates. As a result, ambulance service providers will lose an estimated $450 <br />million in relief from 2007 through 2009. <br />According to a recent report (Ambulance Providers: Costs and Expected Medicare Margins Vary <br />Greatly GAO-07-383, May 23, 2007) by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), <br />ambulance service providers are reimbursed by Medicare an average of six percent (6%) below <br />Page 1 of 2 <br />