President Bush likely will reveal his proposal for changing the Medicare physician fee formula during his State of the Union address on Jan.28, according to CongressDaily.
Bush for the first time is required by law to send a Medicare savings plan to Congress after he releases his FY09 budget proposal because Medicare trustees last year triggered a “Medicare funding warning.” The warning is issued when trustees for two consecutive years predict that federal general fund revenue must be used to pay for 45 percent or more of total Medicare costs within seven years. Bush last month signed into law a bill that delays the fee cut through July 1 and extends the State Children’s Health Insurance Program through March 2009. The bill increased Medicare physician fees by 0.5 percent during that period and extended several programs that provide higher Medicare reimbursement rates to rural healthcare providers and hospital laboratories, according to the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report.
