Obama Administration vs. Harry Reid on Payments to Hospitals
While the Administration’s new report out today focuses on how the health care law will make Medicare “strong and solvent,” some in the majority in Congress are already expressing their concerns about the impact the law’s provisions will have on beneficiary access. Here’s what today’s report claims about the hundreds of billions of dollars in reductions to Medicare hospital payments:
CMS has already begun to implement these provisions, which will ensure that providers keep an eye towards efficiency while maintaining high-quality care.
But as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) implements reductions in hospital payments for 2011, Majority Leader Reid sent a letter on July 21 claiming that reductions in reimbursements would have a negative effect on beneficiary access:
I am writing today regarding the proposed Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System regulation. I am very concerned that this proposal will result in a net reduction in payment to Nevada’s hospitals at a time when they are unable to absorb such a cut….I am very concerned about the potential effects on beneficiary access if this regulation is finalized without adjustment.
The letter of course comes months after all 60 Senate Democrats voted to enact legislation that would further reduce hospital payments by hundreds of billions of dollars. The Medicare actuaries found that those provisions “are unlikely to be sustainable on a permanent annual basis,” as about 15 percent of hospitals and related Medicare providers could become unprofitable within ten years, “possibly jeopardizing access to care for beneficiaries.” And based on his recent letter, one may reasonably ask whether Sen. Reid now agrees with that assessment that beneficiary access will be harmed as a result of a law he and the Democratic majority voted to enact.