Don't cut insurer payments
30 05 08 - 13:26
The Bush administration is threatening to veto any legislation that protects doctors' Medicare payments at the expense of private insurers.
Beginning July 1, reimbursement rates for doctors will drop 10.6 percent when they treat elderly and disabled patients participating in Medicare.
To keep that from happening, lawmakers are looking at finding at least $9 billion in savings from other Medicare programs over the next five years.
At the top of the list for Democrats and some Republicans: private insurers serving some 9.5 million elderly and disabled beneficiaries through Medicare Advantage. The insurers get a government subsidy that many lawmakers say is too generous.
But the administration says cutting the subsidy would result in a loss of benefits for seniors.
"If the president is presented with legislation that would result in the loss of access to additional benefits or choices in the Medicare Advantage program, the president's senior advisers would recommend he veto the bill," said Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.
The veto threat came in a May 22 letter to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, that was circulated Thursday on Capitol Hill.
The threat complicates efforts by lawmakers to find the needed savings to retain the current level of physician payments, or even raise them slightly. It's tough to find enough votes to cut payments to any health care provider in the Medicare program, let alone find enough support to overcome a presidential veto.
Leavitt said the higher physician payments should occur by adjusting payments to other providers in traditional Medicare. Examples of other providers would be hospitals, nursing homes and sellers of medical equipment such as wheelchairs and oxygen tanks.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is overseeing the crafting of Medicare legislation on the Senate side. His spokeswoman, Carol Guthrie, said that while the senator was aware of the administration's concerns, advisory commissions have reported that the government pays about 13 percent more for patients in Medicare Advantage than for comparable patients in traditional Medicare.
"Congress has a duty to Medicare beneficiaries and to all taxpayers to modify payments when they are found to be out of line," Guthrie said.
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