“A pandemic will not be the time to be slicing entry to docs for sufferers on Medicare,” Kim Schrier, (D-Wash.) who launched the invoice together with Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), mentioned in an announcement. “This laws will carry some stability to the Medicare cost system to make sure sufferers can preserve seeing their docs. And docs, who’ve been on the frontlines throughout this pandemic, can proceed to maintain their doorways open.”
Medicare suppliers have been urgent Congress all yr to provide you with an answer — an effort that went into overdrive after lawmakers failed to incorporate any repair within the short-term funding invoice accredited late final week.
Docs may see Medicare funds decline practically 10 p.c, and hospitals 6 p.c, if Congress doesn’t act by the top of the yr.
Though there’s precedent for dealing with these sorts of extenders early within the new yr, “you clearly wish to keep away from that,” mentioned Chip Kahn, the chief of the Federation of American Hospitals.
If Congress doesn’t act: There’s a 2 p.c Medicare cost reduce created underneath sequestration that was deferred by Congress final yr. There may be additionally a 4 p.c reduce to Medicare funds because of a so-called pay-as-you-go regulation triggered by spending above a sure degree, which was set off by the $1.9 trillion pandemic reduction bundle, H.R. 1319 (117), handed earlier this yr.
Physicians are additionally going through the elimination of a 3.75 p.c Medicare cost bump that was prolonged final yr and expires on the finish of the yr.
What’s within the invoice: Among the many top-line objects within the invoice are a moratorium on the two p.c sequester reduce by way of the top of March. A 1 p.c reduce would then be in impact by way of the top of June. The invoice additionally features a 3 p.c Medicare cost enhance for docs, fairly than extending the complete 3.75 p.c bump.
The invoice would delay the 4 p.c PAYGO reduce till 2023. It additionally contains delaying Medicare cuts within the laboratory house in addition to the implementation of the Medicare radiation oncology mannequin for one yr.
What’s subsequent: The Home Guidelines Committee is assembly to debate the stand-alone laws. The Home may vote on the invoice as early as Tuesday afternoon, in line with two senior congressional aides.
The cash at stake: The Coalition to Shield America’s Well being Care, made up of hospital teams, instructed congressional management final week {that a} failure to behave would end in greater than $14 billion in complete Medicare cost cuts to hospitals in 2022.
