STAT+: Congress gives doctors Medicare pay bump, sets up December fight in new funding package
Lawmakers decided to increase doctors’ Medicare pay in their new government funding deal, but punted other controversial issues until December.
WASHINGTON — Doctors will get a 1.68% pay hike in Medicare starting March 9 under a deal struck over the weekend to fund part of the government.
The pay bump is among multiple Medicare payment policies that now will run until the end of December. That year-end deadline lines up with the expiration of telehealth pay policies, setting the stage for a large health legislative package and giving Congress another shot at aligning hospital and doctor office payments and reforming the business practices of drug middlemen.
The bipartisan bill, agreed to by leaders in the House and Senate, comes ahead of a government spending deadline on March 8. There is a second tranche of funding bills set to expire March 22 but measures of concern to the health care sector are included in the first set.
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