Democrats Stymied On Medicare Physician Pay 'Fix'
Jun 23, 2010
CongressDaily: "Medicare physician payments, unemployment
benefits, aid to states and long-stalled tax breaks were all still in limbo
Tuesday with no clear path forward." House Democrats are waiting for the
Senate to act on the larger bill before considering a separate "doc
fix" bill the Senate passed last week.
"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants
the Senate to pass the worker benefits, aid to states and tax breaks to spur job
creation before the House takes up the Medicare fix. But House leaders are
coming under heavy pressure from physician groups and AARP, however, after the
Senate passed a fully offset 'doc fix' last week." Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid also quickly wants to pass the extenders bill that includes aid to states
for Medicaid spending, unemployment benefits and tax breaks. "For now, he and
Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus are trying win over Maine Republican Sens.
Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins by making additional cuts to the bill's cost"
(Cohn, 6/23).
The Hill: "House Ways and Means Chairman Sander Levin
(D-Mich.) said the offsets worked out by the Senate on the Medicare 'doc fix'
could be changed once the rest of the tax extenders bill reaches the House," to
help pay for that portion of the bill. It could mean that the "doc fix"
bill, which would avert a scheduled 21 percent pay cut to doctors, and give them
a 2.2 percent raise instead, would have to go back to the Senate before
final approval. Technical differences between the House and Senate versions of
the legislation remains, Levin said, and could need further
refinement (Needham, 6/22).
CQ
HealthBeat: There are differences within the House as well: "Majority Leader
Steny H. Hoyer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi have staked out different positions
about whether the House will follow the Senate and vote on a separate bill to
stop a sharp reduction in Medicare payments to physicians." While Pelosi want
the Senate to pass the bigger bill, which "includes extensions of tax
breaks and benefits for the unemployed," yesterday Hoyer "pointedly
declined to go that far, saying that there are a lot of things House Democrats
want in a jobs bill that are vital, but that doctors who take Medicare patients
also have to be paid. ... itfs clear that Congress is under the gun to pass jobs
and 'doc fix' legislation before its July Fourth recess" (Epstein,
6/22).
This is part of Kaiser Health News' Daily Report - a summary
of health policy coverage from more than 300 news organizations. The full
summary of the day's news can be found here and
you can sign up for e-mail subscriptions to the Daily Report here. In addition, our staff of reporters
and correspondents file original stories each day, which you can find on our home page.
© 2010 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights
reserved.