Congressional Action Provides Six-Month Doc Fix on
Medicare Pay Cuts
Gives Docs temporary 2.2% raise, moves this issue
passed the mid-term election period
June 29, 2010 - Last Friday, President Barack Obama
signed a bill delaying the 21 percent cut in Medicare pay rates for
physicians, after the House passed the bill Thursday night on a 417-1
vote. The Senate had passed the bill after separating it from a larger
jobless benefits bill that had been blocked by Republicans.
The $6.5 billion legislation that provides a 2.2
percent raise for Medicare doctors was taken out of a jobless benefits
bill by the Senate last week after Republicans blocked the larger bill.
Docs who treat senior citizens in Medicare
were facing 21% pay cut today; Republicans have repeatedly
blocked Democratic effort to stop the pay reduction
The President immediately issued the following
order to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
I have today signed into law H.R. 3962, the
"Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension
Relief Act of 2010", which averts a 21.3 percent reduction in the
Medicare physician fee schedule and replaces it with a 2.2 percent
increase through November 2010.
By this memorandum, I request that you immediately
take the following steps to minimize any disruption to, or
administrative burden on, Medicare physicians and other affected
providers and to minimize any disruption in the ability of Medicare
beneficiaries to access necessary services:
(a) Direct the Medicare claims administration
contractors to immediately implement the legislative update to the
physician fee schedule conversion factor;
(b) Provide all appropriate resources for the
Medicare claims administration contractors to ensure the update is
implemented as rapidly as possible;
(c) Direct the Medicare claims administration
contractors to automatically reprocess, to the extent feasible, any
claims reflecting the 21.3 percent fee schedule reduction, in order to
relieve the administrative burden on physician practices;
(d) Take all necessary steps, to the extent
permitted by law, to protect Medicare beneficiaries from any disruption
to their access to services that may be occasioned by the reprocessing
of claims; and
(e) Reopen the 2010 Annual Participation
Enrollment Program through July 16, 2010, to allow physicians and other
affected providers an additional opportunity to participate in
Medicare.
"The measure delays cuts through the end of
November while lawmakers work on a more permanent solution, reported the
Associated Press.
There was some urgency to approve the $6.5 billion
bill. Medicare officials announced last week that the program would
begin processing claims it had already received for June at the lower
rate." Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., was the only "no" vote (6/25).
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the
approved legislation "totally inadequate" but "said the House had
decided to adopt after concluding that the Senate was hopelessly
gridlocked and could do no better, according to
The New York Times.
To get the short-term doc fix through the Senate,
the cost of the measure was offset by changes in Medicare billing
regulations, antifraud provisions and the tightening of some pension
rules, eliminating Republican objections that it would put the federal
government deeper into debt. Medicare officials had announced on Friday
that they would begin processing claims for June at the lower rate,
raising pressure on the House to accept the short-term adjustment..
"But the same problem will quickly return after
that given the erratic formula used to determine Medicare payments,
reported
Politico, which added that Cecil Wilson, president of the American
Medical Associations, said, In December, the Medicare physician payment
cut will be a whopping 23 percent, increasing to nearly 30 percent in
January' (Rogers, 6/24).
Throughout the legislative battle the AMA has
maintained that large numbers of physicians will discontinue services to
Medicare patients if there is a large cut in pay rates for these
services.
"Democrats have tried repeatedly to pass a much
longer fix, reported
The Hill:
In November, the House passed legislation to
repeal Medicare's physician payment formula, but the bill was shot down
in the Senate by budget hawks with no appetite for adding more than $200
billion to the federal deficit. In similar fashion, Senate centrists
this month objected to a 19-month doc fix provision, which the House
passed in May without offsets elsewhere in the budget." The vote means
lawmakers won't have to revisit the problem before the November midterm
elections (Lillis, 6/24)
June 29, 2010 - Last Friday, President Barack Obama
signed a bill delaying the 21 percent cut in Medicare pay rates for
physicians, after the House passed the bill Thursday night on a 417-1
vote. The Senate had passed the bill after separating it from a larger
jobless benefits bill that had been blocked by Republicans.
Congress is playing Russian roulette with seniors
health care, said AMA President Cecil B. Wilson, MD
Docs who treat senior citizens in Medicare
were facing 21% pay cut today; Republicans have repeatedly
blocked Democratic effort to stop the pay reduction
Bill passed with help of only three Republicans,
signed by President last night
