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Medicare Cuts Delayed

Last update on: Feb 02 2017

In what has become an annual charade, Congress voted to defer until next year the reductions in reimbursements to doctors and hospitals under Medicare. The cuts, slated to be 24%, are used to seem to reduce Medicare spending. But each year they are deferred or changed because doctors and hospitals point out that they would make reimbursements less than the cost of treatment. It’s already fairly hard in many areas for Medicare patients to see doctors, and the cuts would cause many more doctors to decline seeing Medicare patients. Instead of the cuts, reimbursements are increased by 0.5% for this year, and Congress will flounder around for a long-term solution.

The House passed the bill, H.R. 4302, by voice vote on March 27, a move that masked the difficulty Republican leaders encountered in finding support for it amid opposition fueled by doctors’ groups, who were seeking a longer-term agreement.

Spending on Medicare totaled about $580 billion in 2012, when it provided health care for 49 million Americans, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Medicare spending is projected to reach $1.123 trillion in 2022.

The cap on Medicare reimbursement rates, known as the sustainable growth rate, was enacted in 1997 to serve as a check on spending. In practice, delays have become so common that bills to avoid the cuts have a nickname: the “doc fix.”

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