Doctors Pulled From The Brink Of A 25% Cut In Medicare Payments

Those lame ducks continued to flap their wings and fly high with another major December achievement. With no media attention or ballyhooing from the Dems, The Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act (HR 4994) was passed and signed into law by the President on December 15th. This legislation provides a one-year reprieve from a 25% reduction in Medicare payments of doctors' fees that would have otherwise kicked in on January 1, 2011 (although the name of the bill includes Medicaid, no such cuts in that program were included; instead, the bill actually provides for an expansion of some of its programs). An earlier proposed cut of 23% had already been scheduled for December 1. Fortunately, Congress took action in late November to thwart this bloodletting, at least in the short-term.

Such a draconian cut to Medicare payments would surely have resulted in a massive withdrawal of doctors from the program, a significant blow to its health and survival. Doctors stopping their treatment of patients - or suddenly asking for direct payment to continue their services - would have been devastating for the elderly, ill and most vulnerable among us. One can only imagine what would have happened had this bill not passed during the lame duck session, before the Conservative/Tea Party takeover of the House. Their cry would have been, "The deficit, the deficit!" and their cheering would have been deafening as their decades-old dream of ending one of our most successful entitlements came ever-closer to realization. We must be ever vigilant in protecting these programs, and Dems must start fighting to prevent similar cuts from occurring next year when this extension ends. Otherwise, 43 million seniors and disabled, along with hundreds of thousands of doctors, will be severely impacted.

More...