The House this week voted to extend the therapy caps exceptions process and delay a 21.2% Medicare physician pay cut through April 30.
The bill (H.R. 4851) would serve as yet another stopgap measure until a more permanent fix can be found. Although the Senate voted March 10 to extend the therapy caps exceptions process until Dec. 31, and delay the Medicare physician pay cut until Oct.1, the House has yet to approve the measure. It also does not plan to do so until after the current April 1 deadline. The bill now moves to the Senate for its approval.
In other news from Washington, the Congressional Budget Office on Thursday released its scoring of the current healthcare reform package. The bill will cost approximately $940 billion over 10 years, and reduce the federal deficit by $130 billion over that same period, according to the CBO. Although acknowledging a number of unpredictable variables, the CBO expects the reform bill to further reduce the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion during the following decade. A House vote on the final package is expected this weekend.
