House Republicans voted yesterday to reject a Senate deal that would have extended the payroll tax break and unemployment benefits and provided physicians a reprieve on a 27.4 percent Medicare payment cut.
President Barack Obama, Democrats, medical societies and even Senate Republicans were quick to criticize the vote.
"The American Academy of Family Physicians is outraged that Congress failed to prevent the 27.4 percent Medicare physician pay cut mandated by current law," said Glen Stream, MD, president of the AAFP, in a statement. "That failure has presented their elderly and disabled constituents a bitter holiday gift -- uncertainty whether their physicians will be able to provide the services they need."
"Congress has again failed to fulfill its responsibilities. It is shameful that patients and physicians are the collateral damage; the citizens of this country deserve better," said Peter Carmel, MD, president of the American Medical Association, in a statement. "Congress had the entire year to repeal the broken physician payment formula and provide stability for the millions of seniors and military families who rely on Medicare and TRICARE but has failed to act. It is long past time for members of Congress to act decisively and protect access to care for seniors and military families."
The payment cut is scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1. Earlier this week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced that it will hold claims for the first 10 business days of January. The agency told physicians that on or before Jan. 11, it will provide more information to them about the claims hold or the status of Congressional action to avoid the payment reduction.
Whether Congress will be able to come to a resolution before the end of the year is anyone's guess but it's not looking good. The Senate has recessed for the holiday and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said the body will not return. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) asked the president to summon the Senate but the president has refused.
Boehner has called for a House-Senate conference committee to negotiate a compromise. "A formal House-Senate conference committee can resolve the differences between our year-long tax cut extension and Democrats' short-term bill," he said in a statement released yesterday. He has appointed House Republican negotiators but Democrats haven't and say they have no plans to do so.
With no resolution in sight, doctors are facing the real likelihood of a pay cut beginning in less than two weeks. Two House Republicans who are also doctors are looking for a solution to avoid the cut.
[See also: Reality check: SGR cut really may happen.]
Representatives Michael Burgess (R-Tenn.) and Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) told The Hill yesterday that lawmakers should come up with a stand-alone bill to bring relief to doctors. "I absolutely think if everything goes to heck in a hand basket, then clearly we just have to do this for the doctors and pull that out as a stand-alone bill," Gingrey said in The Hill's story, "and I think that will happen in that event."
Follow HFN associate editor Stephanie Bouchard on Twitter @SBouchardHFN.