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.

Click here to read more from HealthLeaders Media.

How to Pass Reform, According to Nancy Pelosi

In an interview last week with the newspaper Politico, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated that the path to passing health reform legislation would take two tracks. First, incremental changes that are mirrored in both bills, such as restricting insurance underwriting practices, establishing a Medicare hospital value-based purchasing program, and providing tax credits to small businesses, will be advanced through Congress as soon as feasible. Other issues of contention will be advanced at a later time, or not at all. These include the establishment of health insurance exchanges, taxes on high cost benefit plans, and new taxes.

Click here to read the HealthLeaders Media story.