The U.S. Congress on February 9 passed a $320 billion budget package that will keep the government operating until March 23 -- and reduce or freeze Medicare fee cuts for physicians in 2019.
Congress approved the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 after a 5.5-hour government shutdown, with the Senate voting 71 to 28 and the House voting 240 to 186. The deal will give the House and Senate appropriations committees time to write a spending bill that will fund federal agencies through September 30, the end of the fiscal year, according to an article from Politico.
The bill addresses Medicare payment cuts to physicians resulting from the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA), keeping the cut at 0.5% in 2018 and reducing it to 0.25% in 2019. In addition, payment rates for radiation oncology services delivered in freestanding clinics will remain stable through the end of 2019, the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) noted.
It also slows changes to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) cost category in the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS): Rather than increasing this part of clinicians' MIPS score from 10% in 2018 to 30% in 2019, the bill keeps it at 10% through 2021.
Finally, the bill eliminates Medicare's Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) and reauthorizes the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for another four years, in addition to a six-year extension recently enacted by Congress.
