Primary care played a starring role in a bipartisan April 11th Senate Finance Committee hearing, Bolstering Chronic Care through Medicare Physician Payment, led by Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Ranking Member MIke Crapo (R-ID).
With PCC members and team in attendance, Chairman Wyden responded directly to a recommendation from hearing witness Amol Navathe, MD, PhD that Congress create a path to scaling hybrid primary care payment, saying, “I like that idea very much.” Dr. Navathe is a physician and Professor at the Unversity of Pennsylvania.
Congress will get a little extra time to prevent a threatened 21 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors.
Technically, the cut was to take effect Wednesday.
But the Department of Health and Human Services said it will hold off processing claims at the lower rate until April 15.
The House has overwhelmingly passed a bill to repeal the 1990s budget formula that requires the Medicare cuts. But the Senate left on its spring break before taking action. President Barack Obama says he would sign the House bill.
