Bipartisan group opposes healthcare cuts to pay for must-pass bills

Seventy House members of both parties have signed on to a letter urging House leaders to reject further cuts to rehabilitation hospitals and hospital-based rehabilitation units.

President Obama as part of his $3 trillion deficit-reduction plan had proposed cutting Medicare payments for rehabilitation hospitals by $7 million.

Those cuts and many more in the healthcare sector are now back on the table as Congress weighs proposals to pay for must-pass end-of-the-year legislation including the so-called Medicare "doc fix," unemployment benefits and the payroll tax cut.

House Republicans say they want to pay for a bundled package by cutting the healthcare reform law, while Senate Democrats still favor using savings fro drawing down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the end, a compromise relying on healthcare and other cuts is expected to be reached if the measures are going to pass before year's end.

"We would be highly concerned with any legislative proposals containing disproportionate cuts or policy changes intended to dramatically reduce funding resources for, or patients' access to, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and units," says the letter, led by Reps. Ricahrd Neal (D-Mass.) and Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.). "We understand the need to reduce the federal budget deficit, but strongly believe that such reductions should not be achieved at the expense of unwarranted and disproportionate cuts to rehabilitation hospitals and units or diminishing patients’ access to their care and services. We respectfully request your continued support for rehabilitation hospitals and the essential services they provide."

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