August 2007

Medicare on House agenda, not Senate’s

Before Congress adjourned, the House passed a bill that would scrap the 10 percent cut doctors are facing in 2008, as well as the 5 percent cut for 2009. But, the Senate appeared to pass a bill that does not address Medicare.

According to Julius Hobson, former chief lobbyist for the American Medical Association and an attorney with Powell Goldstein Frazer & Murphy in Washington, when the House and Senate return from their August recess, they’ll face the task of forming a conference committee to decide between the two bills.

President George W. Bush has promised to veto either version of the bill, but administration officials sounded vehement in their objection to the House’s reimbursement-friendly version. The House bill threatens Medicare’s fiscal solvency and increases spending unnecessarily, according to a July 26 letter from HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt to members of Congress.

Some Republicans suggested Bush is less likely to veto the Senate bill, according to press reports.

At the last minute, House Democrats had to scale back their bill’s provisions affecting Medicare physicians to avoid costing money in the long term. The original bill would have guaranteed physicians’ rates to rise at the same rate as the Gross Domestic Product starting in 2010, or GDP growth plus 3 percent for primary care.

The new version of the bill just eliminates the cuts for 2008 and 2009, leaving doctors to face a bigger cut in 2010. Some sources predicted the 2010 cut could be as high as 16 percent.

Rep. Fortney “Pete” Stark (D-CA) said he wants to spend the next two years crafting a new formula to control the growth in physician spending without endangering access, says Hobson.

Source: Medical NewsWire, www.medicalnewswire.com

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