Monday, March 31, 2014

ObamaMESS: House passes a Bill giving a ONE YEAR Delay to Doctor Pay Cuts under Medicare

The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation on Thursday to avert looming pay cuts for doctors under the government's Medicare health insurance program for older Americans and the disabled. 
The measure to postpone the cuts was approved in a voice vote after an earlier delay signaled potential trouble mustering support for the bill, which halts the pay cuts for one year.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, said the bill would be brought up for a vote in that chamber on Monday, with no opportunity to amend it, meaning that if it passes it will go straight to President Barack Obama to sign into law. Reid said a supermajority of 60 votes would be required. The Senate has 100 members. 
The measure would once again give doctors a one-year reprieve from a 24 percent cut that would otherwise take effect on April 1 under the Medicare payment formula, known as the sustainable growth rate, or SGR.
But House passage was nonetheless a let-down for doctors' groups, which have become frustrated with the uncertainty of temporary measures and have been lobbying for a longer-term fix to the payments formula that was set up in the 1990s. The formula has never been fully enacted and instead has been overridden 16 times by Congress. 
The payments affect doctors treating patients under Medicare, which pays for healthcare for nearly 51 million people in the United States who are 65 and older or disabled.
The American Medical Association said it was "extremely disappointed" that House lawmakers had given up on a complete repeal of the old payments formula.
Read the rest of the story HERE.

If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.


No comments: