Updated 2/26/2010

Medicare Physician Payment Cuts Effective on Monday

Medicare physician payment cuts are scheduled to go into effect March 1, 2010. On Thursday, February 25, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a 30-day extension. In addition to sparing doctors from the 21 percent cut in Medicare payments, the bill covers a large package of government programs, including the extension of subsidies to help laid-off workers pay health premiums through the COBRA program and funding for highway projects.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) tried to achieve the same extension in the Senate through a unanimous consent request on Thursday as well as Friday, February 25, but was defeated: Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) objected that provisions to extend unemployment insurance, COBRA and other policies would result in a $10 billion bill that would add to the budget deficit.

The Senate has now adjourned for the weekend, so the 21.2 percent Medicare physician payment cut will go into effect Monday. However, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are notifying their contractors to hold Medicare physician claims for 10 business days to see if this can be resolved by the Senate.

Take Action! Ask Congress to permanently fix the Medicare Physician Payment      The Medicare Payment amendment passed on February 4, 2010 does not modify policy. Congress still needs to pass legislation that would repeal the SGR or put in place a fix to prevent the 21.2 percent cut scheduled to go into effect on March 1. Take Action Now!

Updated 2/10/2010

House Approves Debt Limit Expansion

The U.S. House of Representative, which originally passed H. J. Res 45 in April 2009, had to vote on the measure again given the significant changes made by the Senate (see below). On February 4, 2010, the House passed the Senate version and sent it to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Congress still needs to pass legislation that would repeal the SGR or put in place a fix to prevent the 21.2 percent cut scheduled to go into effect on March 1, 2010. Take Action Now!

Original article,1/28/2010

Senate Approves Five-Year Medicare Physician Fix 'Pay-Go' Waiver (01/28/2010)

The U.S. Senate passed amendment 3055, debt limit expansion legislation on Thursday, January 28, 2010. This amendment is the first step toward repealing the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula, as the cost of repealing the SGR formula will not have to be offset by new revenues for the next five years. Instead, this cost, which is estimated to be $82 billion over five years, would be added to the debt.

The 60-40 vote on the amendment was along party lines. The 60th vote supporting the Democrats came from Senator Bernard Sanders (I-VT). The Senators then approved the debt limit expansion legislation (H.J Res 45).

The House passed H.J. Res 45 in April 2009. Given the significant changes from H.J. Res. 45 to this resolution done by the Senate, the House will need to vote again. It is expected that the House will pass the Senate version and this will be sent to President Barack Obamafor his signature.

The Medicare payment amendment does not modify policy. Congress still needs to pass legislation that would repeal the SGR or put in place a "fix" to prevent the 21.2 percent cut scheduled to take effect on March 1, 2010. One option that Congress could consider is language from the “Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009” (H.R. 3961), which was passed by the House of Representatives last November, creating a Medicare physician payment system consisting of two separate expenditure targets with conversion factor updates based on the gross domestic product (GDP). Both the House and Senate are considering attaching this proposal to an upcoming unemployment extension bill that will be considered  as early as next week.

Congressional Budget Office estimates that repealing th SGR formula will cost $210 billion over 10 years. Thanks to the pay-go exemption, $82 billion would not be required to be offset by other revenue or cuts. Therefore, an additional $130 billion in offsets will still be required to pay for the repeal. It is unclear at this point if Congress will support this proposal.