Florida Senate - 2010                             CS for SM 1746
       
       
       
       By the Committee on Health Regulation; and Senator Jones
       
       
       
       
       588-02491-10                                          20101746c1
    1                           Senate Memorial                         
    2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
    3         urging Congress to create a nationwide Emergency Room
    4         Staffing Initiative.
    5  
    6         WHEREAS, a crisis exists whereby an insufficient number of
    7  physicians and medical specialists are available to provide on
    8  call emergency room support, and
    9         WHEREAS, in order to provide a more stable health care
   10  system in America, an incentive must be created to encourage
   11  physicians and medical specialists to more actively participate
   12  in these on-call emergency room responsibilities as part of
   13  their hospital staffing duties, and
   14         WHEREAS, an increased number of indigent care cases and
   15  patients without health insurance seeking medical attention has
   16  helped to discourage many practitioners and specialists from
   17  desiring to serve in on-call services in emergency rooms, and
   18         WHEREAS, when combined with already dramatically reduced
   19  reimbursement rates, the staffing crisis is exacerbated, NOW,
   20  THEREFORE,
   21  
   22  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   23  
   24         That the Congress of the United States is urged to create a
   25  nationwide initiative in order to remedy this staffing crisis by
   26  amending the nation’s tax code to allow for all uncompensated
   27  emergency room work to be eligible as a charitable deduction
   28  against earned income for the practicing physician or medical
   29  specialist up to a maximum of $100,000. Charges eligible for
   30  this deduction should be based on a rate equivalent to 200
   31  percent of the Medicare reimbursement rate at the time the
   32  service is rendered. In the absence of an applicable Medicare
   33  billing code, the charge for this deduction should be based on a
   34  fee not to exceed 100 percent of the average customary and
   35  reasonable charges allowed under private health insurance for
   36  any services rendered.
   37         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
   38  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
   39  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
   40  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
   41  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.