From the NAHU Newswire:
In continuing coverage from previous editions of NAHU Newswire, the New York Times (6/27, Pear) reports that physicians now “face a 10 percent cut in Medicare payments next week, following the Senate’s failure on Thursday to take up legislation that would have averted the cuts.” By a vote of 58 to 40 on Thursday, “Republican senators blocked” the bill, which “would cancel the 10 percent cut scheduled to occur on Tuesday and would increase Medicare payments to doctors by 1.1 percent in January.”
The Wall Street Journal (6/27, A3, Lueck) notes that the “Medicare legislation passed the House with an overwhelming 355 to 59 vote,” but Senate Republicans “objected to nearly $14 billion over five years in cutbacks to certain health-insurance plans that operate in Medicare.” Senate Democrats hoped that, like Republicans in the House, those in the Senate would be “worried that opposing the bill would be characterized as a vote against physicians and Medicare beneficiaries, both powerful constituencies.”
Bloomberg (6/27, Marcus) points out that both “Republicans and Democrats agreed they needed to stop the cut in physician payments, required under a complex formula Congress set a decade ago to hold down spending.” They cannot agree, however, “about how to pay for it, with Democrats seeking deeper reductions in reimbursements to UnitedHealth Group Inc., WellPoint Inc., and other private insurers that provide benefits through a program called Medicare Advantage.” During the debate, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that the current plan “would cause two million seniors to lose the extra benefits they currently get in their Medicare Advantage plans.”
Postponing “the cuts in Medicare physician payments has become an annual event for Congress, but finding the money invariably requires trimming payments to other healthcare providers,” the AP (6/27, Babington) adds. This year, the measure “fell one vote short of the 60 needed to pass the bill under expedited rules.” While “[m]any pharmacists support the bill because it would delay payment cuts through Medicaid,” the “insurance industry, in particular, opposed” it.
After the failure of the measure, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) predicted that “doctors are going to survive with a 10 percent pay cut, but they’re going to drop out of the system,” Congressional Quarterly (6/27, Armstrong) reports. However, “it’s likely the issue will be revisited shortly after the July Fourth recess.”
The Hill (6/27, Rushing) explains that the 58 to 40 vote came after “Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) switched his vote to ‘no’ as a procedural move that allows him to bring the bill back up for a future vote.”
Lawmaker apologizes for “no” vote on Medicare bill. The Hill (6/27, Young) reports that “Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.) said he would have voted for the Medicare bill Tuesday if he’d known it was going to pass anyway.” In a statement, he said, “Had I known the process would play out this way, I would have supported the House bill. And if the bill comes back to the House for final approval, I intend to fully support it.” On Tuesday, many “House Republicans rushed to get on the right side of a Medicare bill that passed overwhelmingly,” the Hill notes. But Rep. Herger “took a little longer to rethink his decision.” Explaining his vote, Rep. Herger wrote, “From my conversations with House Republican leaders, it was my understanding that the bill voted on by the House (H.R. 6331) was primarily a political exercise and had no chance of becoming law.”
