House leaders introduced legislation Tuesday to permanently replace a flawed and outdated Medicare payment formula that continually threatens to deeply cut payments to doctors.
The legislation would also reauthorize funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program until the fall of 2016. If Congress doesn’t take action, funding for that program will expire on March 31, and doctor payments from Medicare would increase by more than 20 percent.
The bill would rely on wealthy seniors paying more to help offset the projected cost of the measure. It has been a year since bipartisan lawmakers released the framework for the permanent fix, and with another short-term patch set to expire next week then House Republican and Democratic leaders are pushing to get legislation through.
“We can see the light at the end of the [sustainable growth rate] tunnel — finally. Our bipartisan product begins the task of strengthening Medicare over the long term,” said Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich.
The bill includes several other Medicare reforms, including extending payments for ambulatory services and extending a payment adjustment rate offering certain low-volume hospitals with additional funding associated with the higher cost of operating a hospital with a low volume of patients.
The House is expected to consider the legislation later this week. The Senate has largely been waiting to see what the House comes up with.
While both parties appear united on passing a permanent doc fix, several hurdles remain. Several conservative groups such as the Heritage Foundation have come out against proposed legislation, wary of how the House plans to pay for the permanent fix without adding to the deficit.
The legislation is expected to cost $210 billion over the next decade, and the Medicare savings will only amount to $70 billion.
Congress has adopted short-term extensions 17 times, with the latest coming last year as an effort for a permanent fix was derailed over cost issues.
