WASHINGTON – As of press time, Congress was unable to forge a bipartisan compromise that would provide relief from the anticipated 10.6 percent Medicare payment cut for physicians.
In a somewhat unprecedented move, the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services intervened, extending the planned July 1 deadline to July 15. According to a June 27 e-mail sent by CMS officials to Congressional leaders just hours before their recess began, CMS will delay the cut to allow Congress to work something out. Congress will return from its 4th of July recess on July 8.
Stakeholders, lawmakers, federal officials and patients alike are concerned that the physician pay cut will put seniors at risk. The American Medical Association has said if the cut is not corrected through legislation, 60 percent of physicians say they will drop Medicare participation. In addition, more than half of doctors surveyed say they will cut staff, and 14 percent say they will quit patient care altogether.
Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) called the CMS extension "an extraordinary but much-needed step to ensure that there is no disruption in the delivery and payment of physician services to Medicare patients."
The CMS intervention follows failed attempts in June by Congress to get a physician pay fix passed. After much wrangling, Congress seemed to agree on amended versions of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008, which was introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.). The bill would provide an 18-month delay in payment cuts and a 1.1 percent payment increase in 2009. The impasse came mainly over how to fund the bill, with Democrats in favor of cutting funds to Medicare Advantage and Republicans firmly against such cuts.
Chris Jackson, a spokesman for Gingrey, was optimistic the stumbling block might be removed in future attempts to pass a bill.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, has pushed hard for compromise with an eye toward a bill President Bush will sign. Such a bill would have to include no cuts to Medicare Advantage.