(Jan. 3, 2008) The House passed legislation on December 19 that will prevent a 10.1 percent cut to doctors’ Medicare payment rates and that extends funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) through March 2009. The measure passed overwhelming by a vote of 411-3 in the House after being approved a day earlier by unanimous consent in the Senate. President Bush signed this legislation into law on December 29, 2007.
The bill provides a 0.5 percent payment increase for physicians through June 30, 2008. It will not stop cuts after the fix expires in June, nor does it affect cuts scheduled for future years. The House passed a broad Medicare package this summer that would have included a two-year payment increase for doctors, but this current package includes no new Medicare policy. Members of Congress will be forced to revisit the issue in the first half of an election year if they intend to prevent a cut in Medicare physician pay.
Other provisions of the bill include:
- Work Geographic Adjustment—Extends the work geographic index (GPCI) floor of 1.0 through June 30, 2008.
- Medicare Scarcity Payments—Extends provisions that provide a 5 percent bonus payment to physicians practicing in physician shortage areas through June 30, 2008.
- PQRI—Extends the physician quality reporting system and revises the Physician Assistance and Quality Initiative fund.
- Therapy Caps—Extends exceptions to therapy cap through June 30, 2008.
- Medicare Advantage Stabilization Fund—Removes $1.5 billion in 2012.
- Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF) Services—Permanently freezes the inpatient rehabilitation services compliance threshold at 60 percent, effective for cost reporting periods starting July 1, 2006, and allows co-morbid conditions to count toward this threshold.
- Military Physicians—Permits physicians in the armed services to engage in substitute billing arrangements for longer than 60 days when they are ordered to active duty.