|
E-mail this page to a friend!
Senior Citizen Politics
Democrats Try Again to Stop Medicare's Physician Pay
Cut; Want More Medicaid Funds to Boost Economy
Doctors 10% pay cut now scheduled for July 1;
Medicaid funds to help states maintain eligibility levels
 Jan. 17, 2008 With Congress back in full swing
after the holiday break, Medicare and Medicaid are back on the
congressional agenda. Democrats stopped a 10 percent cut in physician
pay by Medicare in December but only by agreeing to delay it for six
months. Now they are working on a longer-term solution. Democratic also
want to include an increase in the matching funds states receive for
Medicaid as part of an economic stimulus package, according to
KaiserNetwork.org.
Congress to Resume Crafting Medicare Legislation
That Would Further Delay Physician Fee Cut
Congressional aides at a forum on Wednesday said
they are optimistic that Congress can pass Medicare legislation this
year that likely would stop for 18 months a 10.6% cut to Medicare
physician fees, CQ Today reports. The fee cut is scheduled to go into
effect on July 1 (Armstrong, CQ Today, 1/16).
President Bush last month signed into law a bill
that delays the fee cut for six months and extends SCHIP through March
2009. The bill increased Medicare physician fees by 0.5% during that
period and extended several programs that provide higher Medicare
reimbursement rates to rural health care providers and hospital
laboratories. In addition, the bill extended for six months rural and
low-income subsidies, as well as payments for rehabilitative therapy
under Medicare (Kaiser
Daily Health Policy Report, 12/20/07).
According to CQ Today, the Senate is expected to
lead work on the package, and the
Senate Finance Committee is expected to begin working on the measure
in the opening weeks of the new session. A Democratic Finance Committee
aide said the package would cost between $12 billion and $15 billion
over five years. The aide said that the Finance Committee intends to
abide by pay/go rules, which raises the "question of where lawmakers
will find the billions of dollars for the package," CQ Today reports.
Democrats have sought to make cuts to Medicare
Advantage plans, but a Republican Finance Committee aide in an e-mail
wrote that Bush would veto any legislation containing "wholesale cuts"
to MA plans. However, the aide said targeted cuts might be approved,
adding that cuts to bonus payments for teaching hospitals and cuts to
private fee-for-service plans could be possible. Democrats also want to
create restrictions on how MA plans are marketed, which might generate
some savings (CQ Today, 1/16).
Bush Might Address Medicare Physician Fee Cut,
Leavitt Says
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on Wednesday said that the budget Bush
will release next month might include a proposal to fix the Medicare
physician fee cut, CongressDaily reports.
Leavitt said that lawmakers cannot continue to
patch the fee cut on "a six-month by six-month basis. Next year, we'll
be staring down the barrel of a 15% reduction, and the year after that
it's 20, and we have to solve this."
Bush for the first time is required by law to send
a Medicare savings proposal to Congress after he proposes his budget
because Medicare trustees last year triggered a "Medicare funding
warning." The warning is issued when trustees for two consecutive years
predict that federal general fund revenue must be used to pay for 45% or
more of total Medicare costs within seven years.
Aides and lobbyists "say the White House's savings
proposal could significantly alter Capitol Hill discussions surrounding
Medicare and other health-related issues," CongressDaily reports (Edney,
CongressDaily, 1/17).
Democrats Consider Proposing Temporary Increase
in Medicaid Federal Matching Funds for States as Part of Economic
Stimulus Package
Democratic plans to include an increase in the
percentage of matching funds states receive for Medicaid as part of an
economic stimulus package might meet "resistance from Republicans,
although they might be willing to allow the provision in exchange for
some of their priorities," CongressDaily reports (Johnson,
CongressDaily, 1/17).
Increasing the federal medical assistance
percentage would help states maintain Medicaid eligibility levels at a
time when more people are likely to become uninsured because of job loss
and apply for Medicaid benefits, according to David Parrella, chair of
the
National Association of State Medicaid Directors and director of the
Connecticut Medicaid program (Reichard,
CQ HealthBeat, 1/16).
The increase would be worth several billion dollars
and would provide an immediate boost to states, although funds would be
limited to use on Medicaid, according to aides. The provision is being
based on language included in the last economic stimulus package, under
which states received a 1.5% increase in federal matching funds for six
fiscal quarters (Johnson, CongressDaily, 1/16).
Lawmakers crafting the economic stimulus package
are willing to spend as much as $100 billion to try to "counter a
recession that they worry may already have begun," according to the
Washington Post (Weisman/Birnbaum, Washington Post, 1/17).
Republican Response, Prospects
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on Wednesday said he opposed an increase
in the federal medical assistance percentage for Medicaid, noting that
it could serve as a way to increase federal control over health care,
which the White House opposes. Leavitt said, "I don't think that
Medicare and Medicaid were intended as jobs programs," adding, "They
were intended to help those with serious economic disadvantages"
(Andrews/Herszenhorn,
New York Times, 1/17).
A House Republican aide said, "Increasing Medicaid
payments is a great way to expand entitlement spending but would do
little or nothing to actually improve the economy for working
Americans," adding, "It is just a simple cash transfer to states, with
no connection to the areas of greatest need or any requirements that the
money actually be spent in ways that help improve the economy" (CQ
HealthBeat, 1/16).
However, according to CongressDaily, the money for
Medicaid, along with increased funding for food stamps, is "certain to
be included" in the economic stimulus package (Cohn, CongressDaily,
1/17).
A proposed increase "would surely meet with
Republican objections, although not necessarily fatal ones," CQ
HealthBeat reports.
Republican aides on Wednesday said that the
presence of the federal medical assistance percentage increases would
not necessarily indicate that the White House will veto the package as
long as they were part of an economic stimulus package that included tax
cuts, according to CQ HealthBeat (CQ HealthBeat, 1/16).
House leadership plans to meet on Tuesday with
President Bush to discuss ideas for the stimulus package (Geewax,
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1/17).
Click to More Senior News on the
Front Page
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
