Senate fails to spare doctors from Medicare cuts

WASHINGTON – After a week of partisan wrangling, the Senate on Friday passed legislation to spare doctors a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments looming for months. But the last-ditch effort came too late.

Moments after the Senate acted, Medicare announced it would begin processing claims it has already received for June at the lower rate. The reason: the House cannot act on the fix until next week.

That means doctors, nurse practitioners, physical therapists and other providers who bill under Medicare's physician fee schedule will have to resubmit their claims if they want to be made whole, with added paperwork costs both for the providers and for taxpayers.

"Congress is playing Russian roulette with seniors' health care," Dr. Cecil B. Wilson, president of the American Medical Association, said in a statement. "This is no way to run a major health coverage program."

AARP, the seniors' lobby, called the cut "unprecedented" and "dangerous" even if it's only temporary. Nancy LeaMond, the group's executive vice president, warned it would undermine confidence in the stability of the giant health care program for 46 million elderly and disabled people.

"This cut creates a dangerous atmosphere for seniors and their doctors, and will contribute to more doctors making the decision already made by some physicians to stop taking Medicare patients," she said.

The billings affected by the cut cover the early part of this month. An earlier congressional reprieve expired May 31. Medicare had been holding off on processing claims in the hopes lawmakers would act, but the agency said it can no longer do that without hurting doctors' cash flow.

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