GOP’s payroll tax cut bill passes: The House voted 234-193 Tuesday evening to approve a payroll tax extenders package that includes a two-year “fix” to the formula for Medicare payments to doctors. The measure, which is dead on arrival in the Senate, would patch the cuts to docs by “raising Medicare premiums on seniors by 15 percent starting in 2017 and slashing the healthcare reform law’s Prevention and Public Health Fund by $8 billion.” [Julian Pecquet]
Docs expect 1 year SGR patch: “Top physician advocates are privately — and some publicly — conceding that a one-year Medicare physician payment patch may be their best bet this year, Inside Health Policy has learned, as the two parties remain deeply divided on offsets with less than three weeks until a 27.4 percent pay cut is slated to kick in.” [Inside Health Policy]
Hospitals clash with GOP over cuts: “Hospitals have come out swinging against payment cuts to their industry included in the House Republican plan to stop a scheduled Medicare physician payment cut next January. And the House GOP is swinging right back.” [Kaiser Health News]
CLASS alternative: “Republicans acknowledged they don’t have time to repeal the healthcare law’s CLASS Act this year, but they scored the next best thing: A Democratic co-sponsor on replacement legislation. Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) is expected to unveil the bill along with CLASS repeal sponsor Charles Boustany (R-LA) as early as this week.” [The Hill]
Americans more confident about health spending: Americans’ confidence in their ability to pay for health care improved last month, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters. During November “more respondents reported positive results when asked if they had seen a reduction in or loss of health coverage, lifting the Thomson Reuters Consumer Healthcare Sentiment Index up 2 points to 98.” [WSJ]
Why high risk pools are struggling: “A new report from the Government Accountability Office explores why that happened, suggesting that the speed and intensity with which the program was rolled out may explain the dismal enrollment numbers.” [Sarah Kliff]
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