Congress Working on Another Short Term Medicare Fix
[Posted 02/04/08]

The U.S. Senate Finance committee is working on legislation that would put off the next round of scheduled Medicare payment cuts until 2010. It is unknown at this time if the plan would give physicians a payment increase or if it would freeze the fee schedule at current rates.

At its January meeting, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recommended that physicians receive a 1.1 percent increase next year instead of the 5 percent reduction that is projected. The recommendation will officially appear in MedPAC’s March report.

If Congress were to take MedPAC’s advice, the 2009 update would cost more than $10 billion over five years.

Stay tuned for more information.

Contact: Elizabeth McNeil, 415/882-5176 or emcneil@cmanet.org.