|
E-mail this page to a friend!
Senior Citizen Politics
Restoring Medicare Pay Cut to Docs May Get Delayed
by Iraq War Spending
AARP says effort to derail new Medicaid regulations
also a factor
May 5, 2008 - Senate action on legislation to delay
a 10.6% Medicare physician fee cut might take a back seat to a
supplemental spending bill for the Iraq war and a measure to delay new
Medicaid
regulations,
AARP's
lead lobbyist said on Friday,
CQ HealthBeat
reports.
Kirsten Sloan, head of AARP's health legislative
team, said efforts on the other two bills might delay the Medicare
package until late May or early June.
Senate Finance
Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and ranking member Chuck
Grassley (R-Iowa) are leading development of the Medicare package, which
is expected to create an 18-month delay to the physician payment cut
scheduled for July 1.
A Senate aide on Friday said that the delay in
action on the bill is because of ongoing discussions. "This isn't
because of Medicaid or Iraq or anything else. And we don't know enough
yet to be so specific to say May or June," the aide said (Carey, CQ
HealthBeat, 5/2).
AARP Wish List
Sloan also said that AARP wants lawmakers to avoid
making Medicare more costly for beneficiaries when developing the
package.
Although past physician fee cut fixes have not
contained provisions to help beneficiaries, AARP is pushing for reduced
spending in some areas of the program to keep premiums level, she said.
Sloan said lawmakers should cut funds for
physicians' quality incentives and Medicare stabilization, as well as
duplicative funding in Medicare Advantage for indirect medical
education. AARP also is pushing for lawmakers to more than double the
$12,000 asset limit for beneficiaries to qualify for low-income drug
assistance (Edney, CongressDaily, 5/2).
In a letter to Congress, AARP CEO William Novelli
late last month urged lawmakers to include an electronic prescribing
initiative and a commission on comparative effectiveness of treatments
in the Medicare package. AARP on Sunday was scheduled to launch a
television advertising campaign that outlines its desires for the
package. The ad campaign is scheduled to air through mid-May (CQ
HealthBeat, 5/2).
Click to More Senior News on the
Front Page
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
