Doctors face a 10 percent cut in Medicare payments next week, following the Senate’s failure on Thursday to take up legislation that would have averted the cuts.
Republican senators blocked efforts by Democrats to call up the bill, which was approved Tuesday in the House by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 355 to 59.
In the Senate, supporters fell two votes short of the 60 needed to close debate. The vote was 58 to 40.
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said, “We have to pass this bill to avoid catastrophic cuts to doctors.”
Dr. Nancy H. Nielsen, president of the American Medical Association, said the cuts would force many doctors to “limit the number of new Medicare patients they treat.”
The bill would cancel the 10 percent cut scheduled to occur on Tuesday and would increase Medicare payments to doctors by 1.1 percent in January.
President Bush had threatened to veto the bill, in part because it would reduce federal payments to private Medicare Advantage plans, offered by insurers like Humana, UnitedHealth and Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies.
The 10 percent cut occurs automatically because of a statutory formula that reduces Medicare payments to doctors when spending would otherwise exceed certain goals.
Of course the GOP "offered to negotiate," but we all know they mean "it's too costly." More of the "money before people."
There's more in the full article.
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