• Federal Health Policy Committee (FHPC)

  Scoop: Ways and Means “doc fix” on hold – Axios

  Posted by name on September 19, 2024 at 3:19 pm

  The House Ways and Means Committee is postponing a markup of a prospective “doc fix” and other health bills because of scheduling conflicts and lingering disagreements over legislative language, sources tell Victoria.

  Driving the news: The delay means adjustments to Medicare physician payment system, as well as unspecified surprise billing and rural health bills, are likely on hold until after the election.

  What they’re saying: Rep. Greg Murphy confirmed yesterday that the markup envisioned for this month had been canceled.

  • “We were going to have a health care markup,”
    Murphy said. “There were a couple of bills in there that everybody
    wasn’t quite on board with … so we’re not going to do a markup next
    week.”
  • “I think we’re going to have a policy hour, kind
    of hash out some of the things, maybe take a bill out, maybe try to reform
    the bill and then move forward,” he said.
  • A Ways and Means spokesperson declined to comment.

  Between the lines: A number of unresolved issues about the markup made it difficult to pull off next week, sources said.

  • The problems don’t surround one issue, but it wasn’t
    worth putting out a notice for a markup and risk getting blowback from
    affected industries while dealing with member disagreements, the sources
    said.

  What’s next: The doc fix still is expected to figure prominently in a lame duck session, with physicians facing a prospective 2.8% cut in Medicare pay next year.

  name replied 6 months, 2 weeks ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
• 0 Replies

Log In to Reply