Senators voted by unanimous consent on June 18 to increase Medicare physician fees by 2.2% through Nov. 30 and retroactive to June 1.
Because the vote came after the House adjourned for the weekend, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began processing claims at the 21% reduction called for by the Sustainable Growth Rate formula.
Despite the Senate’s action, leaders at the American Medical Association were still frustrated with Congress and said that the constant temporary actions are likely to lead to patient access issues.
“This is no way to run a major health coverage program—already the instability caused by repeated short-term delays is taking its toll,” Dr. Cecil B. Wilson, AMA president, said in a statement. “About one in five physicians say they have already been forced to limit the number of Medicare patients in their practice. Nearly one-third of primary care physicians have already been forced to take that action. The top two reasons physicians gave for these actions were the ongoing threat of future cuts and the fact that Medicare payment rates were already too low.”
The night before the surprise vote, Senate leaders had fallen short in bringing a pay fix bill to a vote.
The Democratic leadership in the Senate had vowed to continue to try to pass the legislation (H.R. 4213), which includes an array of other spending such as an extension of unemployment benefits and increased funding for Medicaid.
They faced a hard road since every Senate Republican and even some Democrats said they wouldn’t vote for the bill without additional budget offsets. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who voted against the cloture motion on June 17, said that he is concerned that this type of deficit spending will harm the nation’s economic recovery.
“Washington needs to put a plug in deficit spending,” he said in a June 16 statement. “Taxpayers are demanding fiscal responsibility, and we need to listen to them.”
The bill containing the 2.2% pay increase is expected to be passed by the House and signed by the President next week.
According to CMS, the agency will send physicians additional payments for any claims processed between June 18 and when the pay increase bill is signed.