The drama on Capitol Hill continues.
Democrats in the Senate are continuing to push a bill that would stop a 10.6 percent Medicare physician payment cut. To fund the cut, they propose to reduce funding to Medicare Advantage plans. President Bush said he will veto any bill that cuts funding to these plans. (Kaiser Network)
An excerpt:
CQ Today reports that the veto threat “will almost certainly force a compromise later this month.” Senate Republicans have proposed a $14.9 billion, five-year plan that includes an 18-month delay of the physician payment cuts…Meanwhile, interest groups and other lawmakers are pushing to include their own health policy provisions in the bill, according to CQ Today. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) is pushing for a requirement that data collected by Medicare include information on race, sex and ethnicity.
Edward Langston, chair of the American Medical Association, wrote: “This is not a hypothetical situation: 60% of physicians say this year’s cut will force them to limit the number of new Medicare patients they can treat…if the cuts go through as Medicare projects, physicians will be paid 15% less than they are paid now over a year and a half.”
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