In a vote that brings the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act (CHAMP) of 2007 (H.R. 3162), closer to becoming law, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill Wednesday, August 1.
The legislation is designed to provide healthcare for children and seniors by extending and expanding funding for indigent children under the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), and by mitigating Medicare's 2008 10% payment cut to physicians, which many fear will force doctors to limit the amount of elderly Medicare patients they treat.
The bill may have consequences for radiology, however, according to the Society for Interventional Radiology (SIR) of Fairfax, VA. SIR claims that CHAMP divides physician services into different categories, enacting six different conversion factors based on these categories, and would enforce cuts of 21% for "other procedures," which would include minimally invasive surgeries, and cuts of 21% for imaging-related surgeries, resulting in an overall 40% cut in reimbursement, the society said.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writers
August 2, 2007
Related Reading
SIR warns of 40% payment cut for IR, July 27, 2007
Copyright © 2007 AuntMinnie.com
