Congress Recessed Until June 7th - No Final Vote on the Medicare Payment Cut Issue |
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Congress recessed until June 7th without voting to stop the Medicare physician payment cut before the June 1 deadline. Although the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation at the last minute to suspend the cuts for another 19 months, the U.S. Senate left for a week-long Memorial Day recess without taking action. When Congress returns from their vacation on June 7, the Senate is expected to take up the House-passed bill. Congress is proposing a new three-year fix that would for the first time pay more for general (primary) care than for specialty care, yet maintain the status quo of putting off fixing the sustainable growth rate formula a little longer. Due to Congressional inaction, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has already issued instructions to its contractors to postpone processing claims for Medicare physician services provided on or after June 1 for 10 days to provide time for Congress to complete its action and overturn the scheduled cut retroactive to June 1. CMS wants doctors to hold on to their claims for the first 10 business days in June--just in case Congress returns from Memorial Day recess ready to pass some sort of legislation to halt the 21.3 percent cut to physician payments still slated for June 1. The House proposal, part of a broad jobs and tax bill, would increase payments to doctors by almost $60 billion over three years to offset the planned cut. Under the most recent, scaled-back proposal, House Democrats were hoping to postpone the pay cut until January 1, 2012, and increase Medicare rates 2.2 percent for the rest of the year and 1 percent in 2011. At last count, the complete American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, which would have extended unemployment benefits and updated a number of tax breaks in addition to the 'doc fix,' would have cost $127 billion in total spending, raised $43 billion in new revenue, and increased the federal deficit by $84 billion. Although this would postpone the payment cuts it will not fix the problem for physicians. The AMCNO urges our members to contact your Congressional representatives and urge them to end this issue once and for all. Tell them it is long past time for Congress to solve this issue and find a long term solution to the SGR problem. Call your representative and senators today! Northern Ohio Congressional Delegation: Sen. Sherrod Brown Sen. George Voinovich Rep. Dennis Kucinich Rep. Marcia Fudge Rep. Betty Sutton Rep. Steve LaTourette Rep. John Boccieri Rep. Tim Ryan |
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