Congress agrees to 1-month delay in Medicare payment cuts

WASHINGTON - Congress agreed Monday to a one-month delay in Medicare payment cuts to doctors, giving a short-term reprieve to a looming crisis over treatment of the nation's elderly.

The House, in approving by voice vote the bill passed by the Senate earlier this month, postponed a 23 percent cut in doctors' pay scheduled to take effect Dec. 1. That gives lawmakers a month to come up with a longer-term plan to overhaul a system that in recent years has bedeviled Congress, angered doctors and jeopardized health care for 46 million elderly and disabled.

"This bill is a stopgap measure to make sure that seniors and military families can continue to see their doctors during December while we work on the solution for the next year," said Rep. Frank Pallone (R-N.J.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce health subcommittee. Health care payment formulas for military service members and veterans are tied to Medicare.

The vote came as President Barack Obama prepared for a White House meeting this morning with Republican congressional leaders. Neither side expects final deals from an hour-long encounter, but the sparring could have major consequences, both short- and long-term.

In Congress' postelection lame duck session, consideration of whether to extend the Bush tax cuts and possible ratification by the Senate of a new treaty to reduce nuclear weapons arsenals in the United States and Russia represent the most immediate challenges.

Without quick action on the tax rates, taxpayers face sharp increases next year. The private, late-morning White House meeting with top lawmakers is expected to center on a temporary extension that would put off the partisan clash over whether to permanently extend current rates to all or raise them for higher-income taxpayers.

"My hope is that tomorrow's meeting will mark a first step toward a new and productive working relationship," Obama said Monday, "because we now have a shared responsibility to deliver for the American people on the issues that define not only these times but our future."

The Medicare payment cuts are the result of a 1990s budget-balancing law that attempted, with little success, to keep Medicare spending in line. With medical groups estimating that as many as two-thirds of doctors would stop taking new Medicare patients if the cuts go into effect, Congress has had to periodically step in to stop the automatic cuts. Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), and the panel's top Republican, Charles Grassley of Iowa, say they are working on a 12-month postponement that would give them time to devise a new system for paying doctors. It is estimated that repeal of the current budget formula would cost $300 billion over 10 years that would have to be made up with other spending cuts or added to the deficit.