Bush administration delaying Medicare fee cut

[Terri]

By JIM ABRAMS
Associated Press
July 1, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration said Monday it will delay paying doctors for treating Medicare patients in early July to give Congress more time to block a scheduled 10.6 percent fee cut.

The move by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services doesn't block the cut, scheduled to take place Tuesday. It's up to Congress to decide that.

But to give Congress more time to act, the agency will instruct its contractors to delay the processing of any physician or non-physician Medicare claims for health care services given during the first 10 business days of July. Claims for services received on before June 30 will be processed as usual.

More

[MrJLDoug]

Almost every year, Congress finds a way to block the automatic Medicare cuts. But last week the Senate fell just one vote short of the 60 needed to proceed to legislation that would have stopped the cut.

As a senior on Medicare I'm thankful for the few Republicans that are fighting this. I see where the House has also voted to block any Presidential veto. Already the amount Medicare doesn't pay is being passed down to the Secondary insurance and they in turn are passing the extra amount on to the patient.

[Cynical Pete]

Yes, it takes Congress a long tiime to act. It's difficult enough now to have doctors treat the elderly.