NEWS FLASH

Biden’s Old Debt Plan A Likely Starting Point For Super Committee | The starting point for the yet-to-be named super committee will likely be the numerous “Medicare and Medicaid cost-saving measures identified in the Vice President Biden-led phase of the debt limit negotiations,” sources are telling Inside Health Policy’s Sahil Kapur. Those include: Medicare means testing and income relating; restricting payments for durable medical equipment, home health and SNFs ($50 billion or more in savings); reforming Medigap such as banning first dollar coverage (upwards of $50 billion in savings), implementing a slew of payment cuts to hospitals; extending Medicaid drug rebates to Medicare Part D dual eligibles (estimated to save $100 billion).