Medicare physician payment cut Delayed

Medicare physician payment cut Delayed -

Yesterday the House of Representatives approved a bill that prevents 26.5 percent of Medicare pay doctors cut and extends the current Medicare payment rates to 31 December 2013.

Act relief for US taxpayers delays payment expected cut by cutting billions in financing other Medicare providers including hospitals, pharmacies and dialysis clinics. The Senate approved the bill Year's Day, and the House passed the measure last night by a vote of 257 to 167. The last step is for President Barack Obama to sign the bill, which he expressed his approval at a news conference after the. vote

in addition to the current payment rate, the measure also extends the following :.

• the existing floor on the index "doctor's work" in the scale of health insurance costs
• Inpatient hospital payment adjustment for hospitals with low volume up at 31 December 2013.
• Ambulance add-on payments for urban providers, rural and super-rural until June 30, 2013.
• the current process of payment exceptions outpatient therapy services until December 31, 2013.

Medicare Hospital programs will bear the brunt of the physician payment cut delay. the initiatives that could be affected include payments for the end of step treatment of kidney disease; a reassessment of these payments was proposed after a report from the Office of the responsibility of the government who suggested that the federal government is paying too much for these procedures, if approved in the frame. Bill, re-pricing would save about $ 4.9 billion. low-income patients may feel the impact of the decision and that the bill provides Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital payments re-establish -. a move that would save about $ 4.2 billion

There has been outcry from various players industries reductions proposed hospital programs, but the White House stressed that the agreement allows for save about $ 24 billion in total. Ultimately, the move is intended to provide Congress with more time to end definitively the sequester. President Obama said at the news conference that additional deficit reduction is in the works as Congress considers how to address the receiver, and is open to Medicare reform.

What are your thoughts on reductions of programs and their impact on the health care industry?

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