Fwd: Take Action: Tell Your Sen. Taxing Physician Services Will Negatively Af...

[DonnaBav...@aol.com]

 

This would be an unconscionable burden on physicians and patients in PA - please contact your state senator TODAY!

 

 

Donna Baver Rovito

Legislation Chair, PA Medical Society Alliance

DonnaBav...@aol.com

 

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From: st...@pamedsoc.org
To: DonnaBav...@aol.com
Sent: 11/16/2015 1:14:40 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
Subj: Take Action: Tell Your Sen. Taxing Physician Services Will Negatively Affect You and Your Patients

 

Senate Bill 76 – calling for an increase in PA’s sales tax and expansion to include the taxation of services in the Commonwealth – is problematic for physicians and other health care providers because: Many services used by patients will be subject to the sales tax, increasing the already high cost of health care and potentially limiting access to care due to affordability.   Many services used by physicians, such as outsourced practice management services, will be subject to the tax. These costs will ultimately be passed on to patients and/or health insurers, again raising the cost of providing care.   Requiring physicians to collect the tax from patients, without knowing how much they will actually be paid by the patient’s health insurer, is profoundly unfair and creates huge logistical problems. While there does not appear to be a specific authorization to tax routine physician visits or services, taxable items include, but are not limited to, a long list of health care services, which will clearly impact Pennsylvania physicians and other providers, increase the cost of health care, and potentially reduce access to care.    Contact your state senator and urge them to oppose SB 76 and any attempt to include its provisions in other legislation via the amendment process.   Additional Problems with SB 76: The requirement in SB 76 that the tax on services is to be collected by the vendor. This means that a health care provider who provides a targeted service would be required to collect the tax from the purchaser of that service (i.e. patient). This simply does not work in the health care arena.   There is even a series of categories for educational institutions, including medical schools. The category is limited to non-tuition and non-housing charges, but will still have a financial impact on these institutions.

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