News
Payments to Doctors for Medicare Patients Restored as Budget Stand-off Resolved
One senator has been holding the nation hostage over a spending bill which covered many important needs.
It is over.
For our purposes, Medicare payments to doctors were a top concern. Fortunately, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) delayed processing bills until this could be resolved. Physicians have been assured that this will not affect timely payment, which affects their ability to pay their staffs, rent and meet other expenses.
However, now that this crisis is past, the larger one of how to keep Medicare viable is before us. It has been before us for a long time. It keeps getting bigger as the Medicare-beneficiary population grows.
The urgent discussion we must have is the one about keeping physicians in the Medicare program.
We can pretend we have Medicare but if too many doctors exit, we have a shell of a program.
People cannot seem to understand that this is possible.
Physicians, who need to be responsible about fees, cannot keep doing the annual budget dance over how much they will be paid this year for taking care of these patients.
“For five days, retiring Sen. Jim Bunning held his fellow Republicans hostage. He stood his ground, angry and alone, a one-man blockade against unemployment benefits, Medicare payments to doctors, satellite TV to rural Americans and paychecks to highway workers.
“Enough,” the Kentucky Republican thundered repeatedly, his face red, as he stood in the way of Washington spending more money he said it didn’t have on an extension of popular programs. Finally, as supporters and critics yelled at each other outside his Lexington office, he capitulated from the well of the Senate on Tuesday night.
“Relentless attacks from Democrats and withering support from Republicans, worried that the Hall of Fame pitcher was turning the party’s message of principled objection to raging obstructionism, ended Bunning’s stand. He had forced about 2,000 federal employees into furloughs and imperiled jobless benefits for millions.”
Source: Washington Post, March 3, 2010
