The following information was provided by the TMA: 

The Children's Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act <http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/pdf/110/CHAMP/summary.pdf> should be up for debate on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives this week. TMA and the AMA both support the CHAMP Act as the best chance to avoid a 10-percent cut in physicians' Medicare payments next year.  

Here are the good things we see in the CHAMP Act so far:

·       It stops the 10-percent (2008) and 5-percent (2009) cuts in Medicare physician payments mandated by current law and replaces them with one-half percent increases each year;

·       It reauthorizes the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which is set to expire Sept. 30;

·       It stalls, for at least two more years, additional, location-specific Medicare physician payment cuts of up to nearly 2 percent for physicians in most parts of Texas;

·       It authorizes projects to demonstrate the value of expanding "medical homes";

·       It expands mental health coverage under Medicare.