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As deadline looms, Senate fails to adopt legislation to stall Medicare payment cuts

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WASHINGTON — Legislation that would stall a proposed 10.6% Medicare physician payment cut by 18 months has again failed to pass in the Senate. The payment cut is scheduled to take effect on July 1.

Introduced by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 — a slightly altered version of a bill sponsored by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., that failed to pass in the Senate earlier this month — was adopted in the House of Representatives earlier this week by majority vote under suspension of the rules, according to a press release from the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery.

However, after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., filed a cloture motion to proceed with debate on Thursday, the bill fell one vote short of the 60 votes necessary to pass.

In a procedural move, Sen. Reid changed his vote to "no" in order to call the bill at a future date. With the exception of Sen. Reid, all Democratic senators, as well as nine Republican senators, voted in favor of the measure.

After the vote, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., proposed legislation that would extend the current payment rates for 30 days to prevent the payment cut and allow more time for negotiation, the release said.

If no further action is taken before the Senate adjourns for its July 4 recess, the 10.6% cut will take effect on July 1. However, it is expected that Congress will pass legislation to address the pay cut retroactively, according to the release.

"The 10.6% Medicare fee cut physicians have been handed strikes a dramatic blow to medicine's ability to meet the needs of the expanding baby boomer population," Cathy Cohen, American Academy of Ophthalmology vice president for governmental affairs, said in a statement responding to the Senate action. "The Academy is incredulous of the position physicians and patients have been placed in by a failed political process and will work aggressively to reverse the fee cut."