The following article was taken from the Highmark Weekly Capitol Hill Report — Dec. 10, 2010
An agreement was reached this week on legislation that would head off a 25 percent cut in reimbursement to physicians under Medicare, taking the ‘doc fix’ issue off the table in Congress until this time next year. The Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act of 2010 (H.R. 4994) provides a one-year freeze in physician payments through 2011 at a cost of $14.9 billion. The Senate cleared the measure by unanimous consent Wednesday and the House passed the bill 409-2 on Thursday. President Obama is expected to sign the legislation into law.
The bill is largely paid for by increasing repayment amounts for individuals receiving excess premium tax credit payments from the federal government to purchase health insurance on newly created exchanges, slated to open in 2014. The bill increases the repayment limit from a previous cap of $400/families ($250/individuals) for those below 400% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) to a sliding scale from $600 for households below 200 percent FPL up to $3,500 for households between 450 percent and 500 percent FPL.
The bill also includes several one-year extensions of expiring Medicare provisions such as the therapy cap exception and ambulance add-on payments and extends a number of programs targeted at low-income beneficiaries.
