Congress Completes Medicare/SCHIP and Spending Packages

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The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was extended through March 2009 and a projected 10% physician pay cut under Medicare was averted for six months in a bare-bones package overwhelmingly approved by the 110th Congress before recessing for the holidays. The legislation is expected to be signed into law by President Bush. The bill increases Medicare physician fees by 0.5 % for the six-month period and provides enough SCHIP funding for states to maintain current enrollment. Congress must revisit Medicare legislation early in its second session to prevent a physician pay cut in July 2008.

In its last vote before leaving town, Congress passed a $555 billion omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2008. The Department of Health and Human Services is to be funded at $65.6 billion in discretionary spending, with funding increases directed to the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Funding for the Health Resources and Services Administration was also increased, with increases for community health centers, high-risk insurance pools, and rural health. A slight increase was directed to the Public Health Service Act's Title VII Health Professions Programs, but the cluster on primary care medicine and dentistry (through which PA educational programs may receive funding) was decreased by 1.747% from the 2007 funding level.

AAPA lobbied on behalf of SCHIP reauthorization and expansion, prevention of the Medicare physician payment reduction and other Medicare issues, and adequate support of health funding in the 2008 federal budget.

Read more in the January 30 issue of AAPA News.