WASHINGTON WIRE
December 21, 2007
Issue 156
Congress Approves Medicare Package: Provides Doctors with Short-Term Payment Fix
Congress Sends President Omnibus Spending Bill
Hearings
Top Story
Congress Approves Medicare Package: Provides Doctors with Short-Term Payment Fix
Just prior to adjournment this week, Congress approved a much anticipated Medicare package driven by a pending 10% Medicare physician payment cut in 2008.
For months, stakeholders speculated Congress would pass a one- or two-year fix to the physician reimbursement cut to be paid for, at least partially, by a cut to the Medicare Advantage program. However, as a result of a Presidential veto threat and Member disputes over cuts to the managed care program and other pay-fors, the final bill passed this week would provide doctors with a 0.5% payment increase only through June, 2008.
This short-term patch forces Congress to revisit this issue again early next year. It is unclear, however, how much progress Democratic leaders will be able to make on a large Medicare package in an election year where neither Democrats nor Republicans will be willing to cede any legislative victories to the other party
The bill also includes an extension of the current State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) through March, 2009. Many consider this extension of the current funding to be a loss for Democrats who promoted reauthorization and expansion of the children's healthcare program as one of their major priorities this year.
Earlier this year, the House and Senate twice approved legislation to invest an additional $35 billion in the program. However, the Bush Administration stood firm in its opposition to such an additional funding increase for the program, vetoing both SCHIP bills. Democratic leaders could not secure the necessary Republican votes in the House to override the vetoes.
Other provisions in the Medicare bill include a permanent freeze of Medicare's 75% Rule on inpatient rehabilitation facilities at the 60% level, a six-month extension of the current exceptions process for the Medicare outpatient therapy caps, and a six-month moratorium on Medicaid regulations to restrict rehabilitation and school-based services.
The President is expected to sign the legislation shortly.
Health Care News
Congress Sends President Omnibus Spending Bill
Congress completed their fiscal year (FY) 2008 appropriations work this week by sending a $555 billion omnibus spending bill to the President.
The bill compiles the 11 remaining spending bills for FY 2008, including the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education (Labor-HHS) and Veterans Affairs (VA) appropriations bills.
The appropriations process has been anything but easy this year for the Democratic Majority, as President Bush vowed to veto any annual spending bills that exceeded his requested discretionary spending cap of $933 billion. In fact, in November, the President vetoed Congress' Labor-HHS spending bill which included $10 billion more than the President had requested for programs within those Departments. Democrats failed to garner the needed support to override the veto and, thus, reduced spending for their domestic priorities in the final omnibus bill.
Despite the President's relatively austere spending cap, Democrats did manage to shift funds between the 11 spending bills in order to provide about $600 million more than FY 2007 in discretionary funding for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. Nevertheless, the discretionary total of the Labor-HHS section of the omnibus bill is about $5.6 billion less than the spending bill vetoed in November, and this was primarily done by a broad 1.75% cut to many programs funded under this bill.
Within the Department of HHS, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will receive approximately $29.2 billion, about $329 million over FY 2007 levels. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will see an increase of nearly $110 million for a total funding level of $6.38 billion in FY 2008.
The Veterans Health Administration will receive $37.2 billion under the FY 2008 omnibus spending bill - an increase of $4.5 billion from FY 2007 and $2.6 more than President Bush requested.
With the Senate's addition of $70 billion in unrestricted war funding, the President is expected to sign the spending bill.
Upcoming Events
Hearings
The House is in recess until January 15th, and the Senate is in recess until January 22nd.
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