CongressDaily reports that staff from the Senate Finance Committee has been meeting with physician specialty groups to discuss a legislative package that would halt a 10.6 percent cut to Medicare physicians' payments—currently scheduled to go into effect on July 1—and institute a 0.5 percent increase in reimbursement through the end of 2009. Leaders in both the Republican and Democratic parties have advanced Medicare proposals that are similar on key physician-related issues, such as requiring physicians to adopt electronic prescribing systems by 2011 or face reimbursement penalties up to 2 percent. Physicians who adopt e-prescribing would receive payment bonuses of up to 2 percent and scaling back to 0.5 percent. Both proposals also increase the current 1.5 percent bonus for physicians who participate in a quality reporting initiative to 2 percent in 2009 and 2010. Democrats and Republicans are primarily split over how to fund the entire package. Democrats want to reduce additional payments to private Medicare Advantage plans, while Republicans have indicated they will only accept Medicare Advantage cuts to indirect medical education payments.
The American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) staff in the office of government relations will continue to participate in all Medicare discussions and keep the AAOS membership updated on any provisions that would affect the orthopaedic community. The AAOS is advocating for a bipartisan bill that would combine provisions from both the Democratic and Republican packages in an effort to ensure the physician payment formula is fixed in advance of the July 1, 2008, deadline and is not delayed by a presidential veto.
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