A major cause for concern for many medical providers who accept Medicare patients was the looming 21% budget cuts to be in force as of January 1, 2010. On November 19, 2009, the House voted in favor of repealing the scheduled fee reduction 243-183. Instead, the House plan favors a replacing the sustainable growth rate formula with a new system designed to end the cycle of increasingly larger annual fee cuts that Congress must keep erasing with short-term patches.

However, the Senate must still pass the bill before it can be signed into law by the President. A similar plan in October was rejected by the Senate. Some Washington observers remain hopeful that the Senate will pass this bill before the end of the year, although some see a temporary solution being passed, as in previous years.

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Labels: medicare cuts, physician payment plan