Punting on Doctor Payments

摘要

Throughout 2007, members of Congress knew they'd have to do something by the end of the year to stop the 9.9-percent cut in Medicare and TRICARE payments to doctors scheduled in January 2008 if Congress didn't change the law. But they also knew coming up with the money to pay for that fix was going to be a problem. They thought they might cut payments to insurance companies that run Medicare HMOs and several other kinds of providers that some contend are over-reimbursed. But those potential groups all had their own lobbyists fighting to keep their ox from being gored.