Bill Cassidy (R-La.), defeated Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) in a runoff election to become the first gastroenterologist in the U.S. Senate, increasing the Republican majority in the Senate to 54 seats.
Cassidy has been a champion of AGA during his tenure in the House, especially on key issues, such as increasing transparency at CMS when making changes to medical codes. Rep. Cassidy was instrumental in organizing a letter with 46 of his colleagues in the House urging CMS to publish any changes to physician services in the proposed rule to give physicians the opportunity to participate in the regulatory process and to prepare their practices for any major changes. Because of Rep. Cassidy’s support, CMS not only changed their policy to provide more transparency, but also decided to delay the implementation of any new values to colonoscopy codes until they can benefit from this new policy.
Courtesy AGA Institute
Rep. Bill Cassidy (left) and Dr. John I. Allen
“AGA congratulates Rep. Cassidy on his Senate win,” said John I. Allen, MD, MBA, AGAF, AGA, Institute president (pictured at left with Rep. Cassidy). “We look forward to continuing working together and renewing our conversations around health care reform and other key policy priorities, including Medicare physician payment reform, fair reimbursement for services, and adequate federal support for digestive disease research.”
Cassidy’s victory represents the largest pick up of seats by either party since the Republicans gained a dozen seats in a landslide election in 1980. With the gain of the majority through nine new Senate seats, only half of the Senators who voted for the Affordable Care Act remain in the Senate. With this dynamic, the Republican leadership will undoubtedly try to vote to repeal and replace the president’s signature achievement. However, the Republicans in the Senate will still have trouble getting the 60 votes necessary to override an expected presidential veto, and so will look to repeal individual parts of the law, such as the medical device tax, defining the work week to 40 hours, and, possibly, the individual mandate.
