BREAKING NEWS: House GOP Agrees to Doctor Pay-Rate Extension
Congressional leaders have agreed to include a two-year extension of the current Medicare physician pay rates, which includes a 1% increase, as part of a legislative package being negotiated mostly to extend the, soon to expire, payroll tax cut.
In an Interview, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), Co-Chair of the GOP Doctors Caucus, said that the two-year $38 billion extension of current rates that were scheduled to drop 27.4% on Jan. 1, 2012, “was not ideal” but was better than the sometimes months-long extensions that have occurred over the past two years, as Medicare's sustainable growth-rate funding formula has repeatedly called for steep physician payment cuts. Republican leaders had considered a shorter term, he said, but the caucus urged two years as the minimum.
Gingery implied that a permanent fix to Medicare’s payment formula would not happen this year, due to the current congressional focus on deficit reduction. The extension of the current pay rate would allow time to work on a more permanent solution over the next two years. Gingrey said he would prefer a model based on reimbursing the physician for meeting certain benchmarks in treatment, rather than a fee for service.
The House is expected to vote on the package before their December 19th adjournment for the holidays. Gingrey was uncertain if the Senate would support the package. In addition to agreeing to the pay rate extension, a letter from house members asking that hospital rehabilitation cuts not be included in a year end funding package was sent to 79 Republicans and Democrats earlier Thursday.