Washington, DC--Congressman Eliot Engel voted on Thursday to preserve seniors’ access to their doctors by providing a temporary fix to the way Medicare reimburses physicians. The House passed the Senate amendments to H.R. 3962, the Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension relief Act.  The measure prevents a crippling 21 percent cut in Medicare payment reimbursement through November 30, and makes the so-called “doc fix” retroactive to June 1, when the previous provision expired.

“By providing this temporary fix in a responsible way, we are ensuring that our seniors and disabled citizens have reliable access to their doctors and the primary care they need,” said Rep. Engel, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health.  “Medicare is a lifeline for America’s seniors and this bill takes crucial steps towards strengthening it and providing the highest quality of care and benefits for our seniors.”

The bill tackles seniors’ main concern – preventing doctors’ pay cuts which could encourage doctors to opt out of treating Medicare patients.  It builds on the historic health care reform law which lowers premiums, extends the solvency of Medicare, closes the “donut hole” and improves preventative and primary care for seniors. 

Due to Senate Republicans’ filibuster of the larger jobs bill, of which the “doc fix” was once a part, the House has to pass a weaker Senate version of the “doc fix” than what the House passed last year.  In that version, a long-term fix would have been included, but the Senate was unable to garner the 60 votes to break the Republican filibuster.

“It is a shame we can only extend this by five months instead of finally fixing this problem.  Even more disappointing is how we are unable to extend unemployment insurance for out-of-work Americans, or the badly-needed FMAP Medicare assistance for states, which New York so desperately needs.  This delay is a result of 41 Republican Senators unable to compromise and help lead the country,” added Rep. Engel.

The legislation will do the following to provide care and cut costs in order to pay for it:

• Medicare physician payment rates were reduced by 21 percent on June 1.  This provision would reverse that reduction and instead retroactively provide, effective for all services provided on or after June 1, a 2.2 percent update to Medicare physician payment rates through November 30, 2010.
• Provides temporary, targeted funding relief for single employer and multi-employer pension plans which suffered significant losses in asset value due to the steep market slide in 2008. 
• Clarification of 3-day payment window - The bill closes a loophole that had allowed the unbundling of services and submission of adjustment claims seeking separate and additional Medicare payments.
• This provision helps identify potentially fraudulent providers sooner by authorizing CMS to collaborate with the IRS to determine whether providers applying to enroll or re-enroll in Medicare have failed to file Federal tax returns or have delinquent tax debts. The data match would target certain high-risk provider types in high-vulnerability areas.

The bill overwhelmingly passed the full House by a vote of 417-1 and will now be sent to President Barack Obama for his expected signature.

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