Congress Fails to Stop Medicare Cuts by July 1; Physician Payment Rates Drop to 1994 Levels

The Senate again last week blocked legislation that would have stopped the 10.6 percent Medicare physician payment cuts that took effect July 1. A procedural vote to advance HR 6331 – the bill that overwhelmingly passed the House a few days earlier – failed in the Senate by only one vote. HR 6331 would have stopped the Medicare payment cuts in 2008 and 2009 and funded a small physician rate increase through tweaks to the Medicare Advantage program. Senate leaders have pledged to try try another vote on HR 6331 after they return from the July 4th recess. CMA is outraged that some Senators chose to block the bill. Such cuts will force physicians to make difficult choices about limiting the number of Medicare and TriCare patients they can accept, which will further exacerbate the access to care problems in California. There are... [read full story]