Congress averts deep cuts to Medicare

Congress on Friday averted a 27.4 percent cut to Medicare payments for physicians.

The temporary delay in scheduled cuts was part of a payroll tax package that sailed through both chambers after no one objected. 

House Republicans earlier this week rejected the Senate's two-month "fix" to the Sustainable Growth Rate in hopes of reaching a deal on a two-year alternative. By week's end, however, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) caved under intense political pressure to act before the cuts went into effect Jan. 1.

Physicians groups uniformly blamed Congress for the failure to pass a long-term fix and did not single out the House or Senate. The short-term fix means negotiations on Medicare payments have to start all over again in February.

"Eleventh-hour legislation that fails to meet the needs of constituents is no way to conduct the nation’s business. That is particularly true when millions of Americans' health and welfare are at stake," American Academy of Family Physicians President Glen Stream said in a statement. 

"But last-minute, inadequate legislation is exactly what Congress has done with passage of an absurdly short reprieve from the 27.4 percent cut in physician payment mandated by the deeply flawed Sustainable Growth Rate formula for Medicare."

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