House bill alters how doctors get paid for Medicare patients
WASHINGTON -- The House voted last week to avert a steep cut early next year in government payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients.
The bill that passed 243-183 also would change the formula that sets physician payments in Medicare, the health plan for the elderly.
The current formula was put in place in 1997 to control costs and has called for cuts in most years. Congress has passed bills to avoid those cuts, and the newest effort aims at a longer-lasting fix.
In the latest development, doctors are facing a 21 percent reduction on Jan. 1 in the funds they collect from Medicare. Democratic supporters of the fix said a cut that deep would be "unsustainable," and they feared some doctors would refuse to see Medicare patients as a result.
"In sum, if we do not act on this bill, it will mean sicker seniors," said Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the House majority leader.
Critics, mostly Republicans, said restoring the payments would cost $210 billion over 10 years, an amount that would be added to the federal budget deficit as there was no plan to balance the costs with budget cuts elsewhere.
"There is not one dime of pay-for in this bill," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. "It is a wave the magic wand, erase the accumulated deficit of the last 10 years or so in the ... formula, and let's kick the can on down the road."
Republicans also said the bill was a political payoff to the American Medical Association for supporting President Barack Obama's health care reform that passed the House earlier this month.
Hoyer responded that the Medicare bill was planned long before health care reform came into focus.
Reps. Shelley Berkley and Dina Titus, both D-Nev., voted for the Medicare payment bill. Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., voted against it.
A similar bill failed in the Senate this fall after key senators expressed concern about its cost and lack of a budget offset.
SENATE BACKS DETENTION PROJECTS
The Senate supported plans to build or upgrade prisons to hold terrorism suspects moved to the mainland United States from the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba.
Senators killed an amendment by Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., that would have barred funding to construct or modify holding areas on U.S. soil for any individual now at Guantanamo Bay.
Inhofe said his amendment would thwart Obama's plan to transfer detainees to U.S. soil. The administration earlier this month announced plans to prosecute five terrorism suspects in federal court in New York.
"If you want terrorists here, vote against this amendment," Inhofe said.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., responded that the Obama administration already has decided "that there are going to be trials in the United States. It would seem to me it is in everybody's interest that the places where these detainees are being kept should be as secure as possible."
The Inhofe amendment was killed, 57-43. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., voted for it, while Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., voted against it.
Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.
