June 21, 2010 - The dreaded 21.3% cut in Medicare reimbursement that was scheduled to take effect on June 1, 2010 would surely be overturned by Congress.  So sure of this defeat, the overseers of Medicare payment processes have held all claims for the first two weeks of June in suspension to avoid paying physicians at the reduced rate.  The Senate had met this deadline, and passed the measures to not only eliminate the reduction, but grant an increase of 2.2% until November 30, 2010.  Today, CMS has ordered that the claims be processed and paid at the reduced payment rate.  So, what went wrong?

The House of Representatives must approve the legislation before in can be enacted, and won't be able to get to it until next week.  CMS is not going to wait any longer, since medical claims have been stockpiled since the first of June waiting for this legislation.  There was hope that after the House approves the bill, Medicare providers would be able to resubmit their Medicare claims to be paid at the higher rate.  Those who were hopeful are not so hopeful anymore.

A short time ago, House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi announced that her chamber won't vote on the Senate's legislation to reverse the Medicare cuts because it must include elements of the Democrat's Jobs Agenda.  This portion of the bill enables extended unemployment benefits and appropriates funding for states to prevent additional layoffs.  The Jobs Agenda has been a sticking point with Senate Republicans for quite a while, and when it was attached to the Medicare legislation, it ultimately resulted in a GOP filibuster, essentially killing the whole package.  Senate Republicans, aware of the time constraints, agreed to pass the Medicare cut portion of the bill as a stand-alone measure.

Republicans believe it's irresponsible to stop the doctor fee fix to win passage of additional spending items like those found in the Jobs Agenda.  "Senior's access to health care is being held hostage to the Democrats' deficit-spending addiction," said Republican Tom Price of Georgia.

In the meantime, some say the damage is already done.  Prior to this partisan fiasco, many physicians around the country have already capped the number of Medicare patients they will accept.  Once this rate reduction is implemented, many of those capped practices have vowed to jump the Medicare ship entirely.  The number of proponents to wholly dropping Medicare is rapidly growing.

However, if one steps back from the politics and looks at the big picture, it is shameful to see that the population that needs the most help is the same one that is being harmed.  Those that have worked for the past half century, raised a generation or two, paid their taxes, fed the economy, and greatly sacrificed for these liberties are now being treated like collateral in a hostage negotiation.