Senate passes bill to stall Medicare physician payment cuts

The Senate has passed legislation that will halt the 10.6% Medicare physician payment cut that went into effect on July 1. The legislation will freeze the cuts for an additional 18 months.

The bill was passed Wednesday by unanimous consent after a veto proof cloture vote of 69 to 30 — two votes more than the 67 needed to override a presidential veto, according to a press release from the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery.

HR 6331, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008, passed in the House of Representatives by unanimous consent in late June but failed to pass in the Senate by just one vote. President Bush had vowed to veto the legislation.

"The Senate, in bipartisan fashion ... responded to the nationwide outcry by ophthalmologists and other physicians to provide vital support to patients by overwhelmingly passing HR 6331," Catherine Cohen, American Academy of Ophthalmology vice president for governmental affairs, said in an AAO press release. "We urge the president to immediately sign the bill and prevent any further disruption for physicians and their patients."

The cut stemmed from a reduction in the sustainable growth rate, a formula that determines annual updates to Medicare physician payments.

Eighteen Republican senators voted for cloture, an act of bipartisanship in what had become an increasingly partisan debate since negotiations between Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and ranking committee member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, broke down last month.

"I think this shows the power of organized medicine and the power of the grassroots," Ms. Cohen told Ocular Surgery News.