Bipartisan senate bill would set process to review future Medicare provider cuts

Mar 31 2011

The measure would bar any cuts from taking place before the Health and Human Services secretary determines they are necessary. Meanwhile, in other Medicare news, ProPublica reports that federal regulators are in the process of making kidney dialysis clinic data more accessible to the public.

Modern Healthcare: Lawmakers Seek Review Process For Medicare Cuts
Future Medicare provider cuts could face a new review process through bipartisan legislation expected today. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) plans to introduce a bill with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Collins told a Washington gathering of home-health providers, that aims to prevent additional cuts to such entities. The legislation would establish a "transparent process" led by the HHS secretary to determine whether Medicare payment rate cuts are needed and would bar any cuts until such a determination was made (Daly, 3/29).

ProPublica: Feds To Follow ProPublica, Release Dialysis Clinic Data
Federal regulators say they are moving to make once-confidential data about the performance of kidney dialysis clinics more readily available to the public. ... CMS regulates dialysis clinics because most dialysis treatments are paid for by Medicare under a special entitlement created in 1972. In December, [Sen. Charles] Grassley pressed the agency to spell out what steps it was taking to improve the system, which has among the highest mortality and hospitalization rates in the industrialized world (Fields, 3/29).