Protects Physician Access For Medicare Beneficiaries And Military Families

Washington, DC – U.S. Representative John D. Dingell (MI-15) joined his colleagues today in the House of Representatives to vote for the Senate Amendments to H.R. 4994, the Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act, to ensures seniors and military families will be able to continue to see their doctors in a year-long designed solution. It passed the House by a vote of 409-2.   

Today’s bipartisan legislation:

• Blocks the 25 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors, scheduled for January 1, through 2011 and protects payment rates for doctors in TRICARE.

• Extends other key expiring health care provisions, including Transitional Medical Assistance, and the Qualifying Individual (QI) program (which allows Medicaid to pay the Medicare Part B premiums for low-income Medicare beneficiaries.). 

• Clarifies the enrollment period for veterans who participate in Medicare Part B and TRICARE, ensuring that eligible children’s hospitals still have access to discounts for expensive drugs that treat rare disorders, and ensuring that residency positions shared between teaching hospitals under an “affiliation agreement” won’t be redistributed to other hospitals.

Dingell has been a long-time advocate for permanently reforming the Sustainable Growth Rate and has worked with his colleagues to end this persistent problem. Last month, Congressman Dingell introduced H.R. 6427, the Medicare Physician Payment Update Extension Act.  This legislation is similar to the extension passed today and would extend the current physician Medicare reimbursements for 13 additional months.  Dingell applauds the passage of the Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act because a longer extension will give American seniors and physicians more peace of mind while Congress works on a permanent solution to this long-standing problem.  Further, Dingell authored the permanent fix to the Sustainable Growth Rate with H.R. 3961 that passed the House last year.  A more stable system for the physician payment formula was created through that legislation, ending the unrealistic cycle of threats of ever-larger fee cuts followed by short-term patches. 

“While today’s legislation is necessary, unfortunately it is not a solution,” said Dingell.  “We need a permanent fix to this problem.”

Passage of the bill today by the House will send this bill to the President’s desk for his signature.

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