Manager’s Amendment to Reconciliation Bill
As an FYI, this document makes changes to the reconciliation measure:
- Reduces the growth of the true out-of-pocket threshold for the Medicare prescription drug benefit, beginning in 2014;
- Increases Medicare Advantage coding intensity adjustments for the years 2014 through 2018;
- Adjusts the physician practice expense geographic adjustment for 2010;
- Provides a total of $400 million for payments in fiscal years 2011 and 2012 to “qualified hospitals” ranking within the lowest quartile of counties in Medicare spending;
- Strikes Section 1303 (relating to CMS and IRS data matching to identify fraudulent providers);
- Strikes language making transfers between the Treasury general fund and the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund related to the new Medicare tax on wages and unearned income;
- Raises the brand name pharmaceutical tax by $200 million in 2012 and 2013, $500 million in 2017, and $100 million in 2018;
- Reduces the medical device tax from 2.9 percent to 2.2 percent, but applies such taxes to Class I medical devices;
- Adjusts a timing shift in section 1410 of the reconciliation bill;
- Strikes Section 1411 (regarding no net impact on the Social Security Trust Fund);
- Amends Section 2101 to include $13.5 billion in mandatory Pell Grant spending;
- Strikes Section 2102 (related to student financial assistance);
- Strikes Section 2213 (related to state-owned banks – the “Bismarck Bank Job”); and
- Makes other technical and conforming changes.