Congress Misses Chance to Fix Medicare Cut, Opportunities Narrow

Despite a full court lobbying press from the physician community grassroots and lobbyists, Congress failed to include a Medicare payment “doc fix” in its most recent temporary federal government funding package. The funding package, known as a continuing resolution (CR), passed on January 18th and provides funding for the federal government through March.

The House GOP “Doc Caucus” joined Democrat physician members for a bipartisan push to include language retroactively reversing the January 1, 2024 Medicare payment cut of over 3%. The efforts fell short as both the U.S. House and Senate passed the funding package without the provisions sought by physician lawmakers and physician organizations.

Because the funding package expires in March, Congress will be required to pass additional legislation to avert a federal government shutdown in late February.  This must-pass legislation will offer an additional opportunity to attach “doc fix” provisions.  However, it is unclear if obstacles that prevented the inclusion of “doc fix” language in the January package will exist for the March package.