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Volume 12 Number 237 News: Medicare House and Senate staff Dec. 10 continued meeting to craft a Medicare legislative package that would erase for a cut in physician reimbursement scheduled to take effect in 2008, paid for in part by reductions in pay for Medicare managed care plans. House and Senate lawmakers are expected to meet the afternoon of Dec. 11 to discuss a Medicare package, following a weekend of talks by staff that has yet to produce an agreement on the specifics of a physician payment fix and how to pay for it, according to industry sources and staff aides. A draft document dated early the morning of Dec. 8 indicated House and Senate Democratic staffers were discussing a Medicare legislative package that would include numerous provisions, including a one-year doctor fix, about $15.5 billion in managed care payment cuts over five years, and numerous other reimbursement cuts to providers. Lawmakers have said the package could be attached to an omnibus spending bill or legislation addressing alternative minimum tax policy, both of which could be considered by Congress later in the week of Dec. 10. After several weeks of work by the Senate Finance Committee trying to reach agreement on a Medicare package, committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) Dec. 5 said the Senate committee would not mark up Medicare legislation, but he would begin talks with the House. The House passed Medicare legislation in August as part of a bill (H.R. 3162) to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Unless Congress intervenes, Medicare reimbursement to doctors will be reduced by 10 percent in 2008. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt has told lawmakers that President Bush would veto a Medicare bill that contains managed care spending reductions.End of article graphic
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