Home Health & Hospice Week

Home care providers looking forward to a permanent solution to the Medicare physician payment formula at long last will probably have to cool their heels — again. After years of approving short-term ‘doc fix’ legislation every time big cuts to physicians’ Medicare payment rates were scheduled, it looked as though lawmakers were set to approve a final remedy to the sustainable growth rate (SGR) problem.

Now, the House has attached a delay to the Affordable Care Act’s individual insurance mandate to the bill that would enact a permanent doc fix solution, according to press reports. That means the bill will be DOA at the Senate, and other Medicare providers will again fear for cuts to their rates when the doc fix issue is raised repeatedly going forward