Draft House Medicare Legislation
Cuts Hospitals; Provides Some Relief to Physicians
May 3, 2002- Draft House Medicare legislation circulated
May 2 includes payment cuts to hospitals while providing some
relief to the physician payment reductions. There are four
important items of interest to teaching hospitals and medical
schools:
- IME: In FY 2003, the IME is to be increased from 5.5
to 5.8. In FY 2004 and thereafter, the IME will be reduced
to 5.5 percent.
- DGME: Hospitals that have per resident amounts above
140 percent of the adjusted national average will have
their payments frozen through FY 2007. Under current law,
such payments are scheduled be updated by inflation minus
2 percent. Additionally, a draft outline of the legislation
includes a provision to "redistribute unused residency
slots to under-served areas based on need to encourage
better distribution of physicians." There are no
additional details on this provision.
- Hospital Updates: The market basket will be reduced
by 0.55 percent in FYs 2003-2007. However, "sole
community hospitals" would receive full inflation
adjustments in FYs 2003-2007.
- Physician Payments: There is no retroactive adjustment
to the FY 2002 cuts. In FY 2003, physician payments will
receive an update of 2 percent. Additional adjustments
will be made to account for CMS projection errors and
have GDP reflect at 10-year average.
A more complete analysis of the Medicare legislation will
be included in next week's Washington Highlights.
Information:
Lynne Davis Boyle, Assistant Vice President
AAMC Office of Governmental Relations
ldavisboyle@aamc.org
(202) 828-0526
Get Washington Highlights
in your Inbox!
|
