Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

House and Senate Medicare negotiators on July 24 announced agreement on relatively uncontroversial provisions that would give regulatory relief to providers and make Medicare's contracting system more competitive.

The conferees, having been exhorted the day before by President Bush to quickly produce a bipartisan bill, also released an ambitious schedule for tackling the more thorny remaining issues that must be solved before a bill reforming Medicare and providing a prescription drug benefit for seniors can be enacted. The schedule sets a mid-September goal for a final agreement.

Left for later resolution was one important issue related to regulatory reforms. Under the Senate bill, the chronically miniscule Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrative budget would get a $1 billion shot of mandatory funding to help the agency tackle the extra tasks entailed by regulatory and contracting reform. The House bill would leave CMS' administrative funding up to the vagaries of the appropriations process.