Dive Brief:
- President Obama has come out strongly in favor of the "doc fix" bill currently pending in the House. While making public remarks at the White House event that launched the Healthcare Payment Learning and Action Network, President Obama told the audience that "I have my pen ready to sign a good bipartisan bill" to fix the SGR payment system for Medicare.
- A vote in the House is anticipated on the bipartisan bill sometime today, according to the Associated Press. It is unclear how the Senate will handle the issue, as the doc fix bill has some opponents from both sides of the aisle.
- Without the fix, physicians will face a 21% cut in their Medicare fees, a storm that has been brewing since the SGR was created in the 1990s. Last year's temporary fix expires on March 30.
Dive Insight:
Waiting until the last minute seems to be the only way Congress gets things done any more, and this is a perfect example. With only three business days left before the expiration of last year's measure, the Senate members won't have the time to scrutinize the House bill too harshly, though it has likely already been vetted by their staffers leading up to this week.
The detractors on the conservative side don't like that the cost of the fix will increase the deficit, and the far left doesn't like some of the higher premiums and the lack of cost-sharing on the part of the pharmaceutical companies, but neither issue is a deal breaker. The industry is holding its breath that the Senate won't allow the week to end without sending a clean bill to the White House.