Medicare Fees to Doctors Begin Shrinking This Coming Week

We’ve been hearing about it in the news for months and it has become a critical issue waiting for a last minute pre-fourth of July solution for the crisis with Medicare fees for doctors.  The country – especially the seniors in this country – has been holding its breath waiting for Congress to put a stop to the cuts in Medicare payments to doctors.

The unfortunate thing is that Democrats and Republicans have been having heated arguments during the past week leading up to the of July holiday, the idea was that they were supposed to come to an agreement to help seniors to be able to continue their care through their primary care physicians that they are familiar with.

If Congress does not pass a bill reversing the situation and postponing the 10% cut in doctors’ Medicare payments, many doctors have already said that they won’t be able to afford to treat Medicare patients if the cut goes into effect.

It is possible for Congress to reverse the fee cut, making the reversal retroactive and reimbursing the doctors for any losses they suffered during the time that the decrease was in effect.  The vote on Friday was so close that one more vote would have stopped the pay cuts to doctors and kept seniors protected.  600,000 doctors are along with millions of Medicare recipients.

With both sides in a tug of war over details, there are promises of another round starting immediately after the break when Congress reconvenes.  Mike Leavitt, Director of the Department of Health and Human Services has said that the department will do everything possible to minimize the impact on doctor and beneficiaries, and when the higher fee schedule is restored they will reprocess claims at the higher rates as soon as possible.

We will all be watching to see what Congress comes up with next week.

Filed under: General-Medicare

Tags: Congress, Department of Health & Human Services, General-Medicare, Medicare Cuts, Medicare Payment Cuts