Groups, Lawmakers Lobby Against Medicare Payment Reductions

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 30 Nov 2007 - 8:00 PDT

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Advocacy groups have begun to lobby lawmakers as Senate Finance Committee members discuss a Medicare bill that likely will decrease reimbursements for some health care providers to finance the suspension of a 10% reduction in payments for physicians scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2008, CQ HealthBeat reports. According to CQ HealthBeat, the groups seek to "make sure that their reimbursements remain untouched." In addition, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has asked the committee to avoid a decrease in spending for the Medicare oxygen benefit, which in recent years has sustained an estimated $1.5 billion reduction because of new federal regulations.

In a letter to committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the lawmakers wrote, "Additional cuts to the Medicare oxygen benefit could not only increase costs to the Medicare program in the form of increased hospitalizations but could also present substantial health risks to over half a million Medicare beneficiaries."

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) in a letter also asked committee leaders, as well as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), to avoid a reduction in Medicare reimbursements for skilled nursing facilities. In the letter, Pryor said that skilled nursing facilities serve three million Medicare beneficiaries annually and that, because 70% of the costs of the facilities are related to labor, "any reduction in Medicare funding for SNF care will likely have a direct and negative effect on these Americans."

AARP Lobbies Lawmakers
In addition, AARP CEO Bill Novelli has asked committee members to pass legislation to suspend the scheduled reduction in Medicare reimbursements for physicians without an increase in premiums for beneficiaries. Novelli in a letter wrote, "If Congress enacts a Medicare physicians update without offsetting the costs through other legislation, the cost to the beneficiaries will be reflected in the announcement in the fall of 2008 and 2009 and beyond," adding, "Older Americans are willing to pay their fair share for Medicare, but we should not ask them to take on an increasing burden for a flawed physicians payment system" (Carey, CQ HealthBeat, 11/28).

AARP in the next two weeks will hold forums in eight states -- Tennessee, Kansas, Montana, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Nebraska and Maine -- to lobby lawmakers to pass legislation to suspend the scheduled reduction in Medicare reimbursements for physicians (Edney, CongressDaily, 11/27).

Lack of Agreement
The committee plans to mark up the Medicare bill next week, but staff members "say there is no agreement on its main components," CongressDaily reports. Committee members have not reached an agreement on the length of the suspension of the scheduled reduction in Medicare reimbursements for physicians, "a choice largely dependent on how to pay for that provision," according to CongressDaily.

The majority of committee members support a two-year suspension, but "some might balk at the longer time frame if it means a deep cut in Medicare Advantage or other unwelcome health care provider reductions," CongressDaily reports. According to CongressDaily, the mark up of the legislation could "slip" in the event that committee members cannot reach an agreement (Johnson, CongressDaily, 11/27).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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