The Senate Finance Committee passed a one-month “doc fix” on Nov. 18 and is seeking a year-long fix, which would protect physicians from a 23 percent Medicare pay cut until 2012. Lawmakers expect the House to pick up the bill after the Thanksgiving Recess. The “fix” retains a 2.2 percent update in physician payments through the end of the year, and is part of a longer-term solution introduced by the committee.
The American Medical Association, which supports a year-long “doc fix,” recently reported that 94 percent of the public (and 98 percent of seniors) “feels the looming pay cuts to physicians present a ‘serious problem for seniors’ who rely on Medicare.”
The 23 percent Medicare payments cut is actually lower than the 25 percent proposed by CMS. The formula used to calculate physician reimbursement is tied to increases in the gross domestic product (GDP). But over the past decade, spending on physician services has been higher than increases in GDP and Congress has voted each year to postpone the cuts. Congress has not been able to come up with a bipartisan approach.
The “doc fix” is part of legislation introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA) that also includes a longer-term to pay for the Medicare Physician Payment Formula—and, in particular, would protect physician access for seniors and military families—keeping reimbursement levels at current reimbursement levels.
The extension would be paid for using the Medicare savings from a new CMS policy that reduces payments for multiple therapy services provided to patients in one day, but would include relief to therapists by shrinking their reduction from 25 percent to 20 percent. The legislation, The Physician Payment and Therapy Relief Act of 2010, would save $1 billion, which would then be used to pay for the Medicare payment formula.
Read Physician Payment and Therapy Relief Act of 2010 Bill Summary.
