Incremental Health Fixes Buried in Jobs Bill

Embedded within the draft jobs bill floating through Congress are several health care quick fixes. Most are temporary in nature, holding in place a number of programs until Congress again addresses a more comprehensive health reform package.

Among the fixes are:

• A seven month extension to the Medicare "doc fix" that prevents a 21% cut to physician reimbursements.
• Revising the definition of "hospital based physician" under the HITECH provisions of ARRA ("the stimulus") so as to ensure certain hospital-based physicians qualify for HIT incentive rewards.
  
• Extending payments to 2010 for certain aspects of the Medicare program, such as Part B caps on therapy, and expanded payments for mental health treatment.
• Making technical corrections to reimburse critical access hospitals at 101% of their reasonable costs for specified outpatient services, and to extend various Medicare payments to long-term care hospitals and rural hospitals through 2010.

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