Urgent Action Alert! Save our Doctors! Anymore medicare cuts will run Oncologists out of business!!!

We can't afford to lose our Oncologists!!

Our Lives depend upon them!

Anymore Medicare cuts will run Oncologists out of business!

Please call your Senators today!! Your phone call CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!

Senator's phone list: http://www.sgo.org/WorkArea/showcontent.aspx?id=1730

We need your help today with the critical effort to stop the 16 percent cuts that are scheduled for Medicare physician payments over the next two years (a 10.6 percent cut on July 1st followed by an additional 5.4 percent cut in 2009).

This week, Senate leaders will ask the Senate to consider the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (S. 3101), which has been introduced by Senators Max Baucus (D-MT), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), and Gordon Smith (R-OR). This legislation would block the 10.6 percent cut that, without Congressional action, will go into effect on July 1, 2008; and would also replace the 5.4 percent cut in 2009 with a 1.1 percent increase in Medicare payments for next year.

Before this legislation can be considered, the Senate must invoke cloture, which means it must vote to end debate and move to consideration of the bill. Sixty (60) Senators must vote to invoke cloture. This is, by no means, an easy or guaranteed feat. Your phone calls matter! It is unclear what will happen if we do not get 60 votes for cloture. Your help is absolutely essential in this effort to preserve access to gynecologic cancer care. As soon as possible, but no later than Tuesday, June 17th:

When you call, ask the person who answers the phone to deliver the following message to the Senator:

I am a (Ovarian, Uterine or Cervical Cancer) patient, survivor or loved one in (name your state)

and would like the Senator to vote in favor of cloture and support S. 3101 – The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008. When surveying a representative sample of the members of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists, it was found that if the 10.6% cut goes through on July 1, 2008, 47 percent of those responding would be forced by the cuts in reimbursement to consider curtailing access for Medicare beneficiaries. We need [name of Senator] to vote in favor of cloture on S. 3101.

After calling your Senators, please send an email to SGO Director of Government Relations, Jill Rathbun, at jill_rathbun@galileogrp.com to let us know you have completed your calls. This information will help in the SGO’s efforts on our behalf. We want to stress again how important it is that you call your Senators. We need Senate offices to be inundated with phone calls from SGO Members. Your Senators need to hear from you, their constituent, that their support of this legislation is critical to stopping the cuts and ensuring the continuation of quality care.