Senate passes CHIP reauthorization, defers action on Medicare physician payment reform
The Senate has passed legislation that would reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Unlike the House companion bill, however, the Senate measure does not include physician-related Medicare provisions including provisions to avert the impending 10% cut in Medicare payment due to the Sustainable Growth Rate formula (SGR).
Now, the House and the Senate must negotiate the different versions of the reauthorization bill through a “Conference” process. It is expected that a principle issue of discussion in the Conference will be whether or not to include a Medicare physician payment fix in the final version of the CHIP bill. Formal Conferencing will not begin until early September, when Congress reconvenes after its August recess.
Unless the final version of the legislation includes Medicare payment reform language, or without other Congressional action, anesthesiologists and all of medicine face a 10 percent cut in Medicare payments beginning in January 2008, and a 15 percent cut beginning in January 2009, due to the SGR. The Medicare provisions of the House bill, H.R. 3162, would provide a two-year positive Medicare physician payment update, and would set the stage for a repeal of the SGR. (For more information, please click here.)