Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Highlights Recent Medicare News

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 31 Jul 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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Summaries of two recent developments related to efforts by congressional Republicans on Medicare issues appear below.

• Medicare fraud: Senate Republicans on Monday held a forum to highlight their efforts to reduce Medicare fraud, CQ HealthBeat reports. In June, Sens. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) introduced a bill (S 3164) that would require the federal government to verify Medicare claims submitted by health care providers. The legislation also would ask the HHS secretary to begin to obtain surety bonds from companies that seek to supply home medical equipment to Medicare beneficiaries. The senators earlier this year also introduced a bill (S 2603) that would increase criminal and civil penalties for Medicare fraud. During the forum, Republicans also highlighted the failure by Democrats to "tackle fraud in Medicare," according to CQ HealthBeat (Wayne, CQ HealthBeat, 7/28).
  
  
• Physician fees: "Congressional Republicans are trying to mend an ailing relationship with their once-loyal allies in the medical community after opposing" a new Medicare law that delayed for 18 months a 10.6% reduction in physician fees, The Politico reports. According to The Politico, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) last week held a meeting with top lobbyists for the medical community to "make amends after the contentious vote," and he "made the case ... that Republicans are better advocates for doctors and their colleagues than Democrats are," as Democrats "still favor trial lawyers over doctors in a protracted fight over medical liability protections." Republicans "historically have backed the medical community in an ongoing showdown between doctors and trial lawyers over medical liability," but the "lingering tension" over the vote on the Medicare law "hints at a broader rift between doctors and the GOP," The Politico reports (O'Connor, The Politico, 7/28).

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