House Passes Children’s Health Bill With No Medicare Provisions or Imaging Cuts
Overnight on September 25, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that provided a $35 billion expansion of the popular children's health insurance program by a 265-159 vote. The bill did not include any Medicare provisions; most notably, there were no cuts in medical imaging reimbursement.
The $35 billion expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is to be paid for with a 61 cent increase in the federal tobacco tax. President Bush has previously vowed to veto the package and had not yet indicated otherwise, even with SCHIP set to expire after September 30.
The fact that Medicare provisions were not included in the final package means that the House will have to set aside those provisions, originally contained in the House-passed Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act, until the Senate is ready to address Medicare later this fall.
The House’s Medicare package had originally included a reprieve from the 10 percent and 5 percent cuts to physician payments, which were scheduled in 2008 and 2009 under the sustainable growth rate formula. Also included were additional cuts to the technical component of imaging services and language calling for equipment certification requirements for providers of medical imaging.
This new development gives the ACR additional time to work on improving the House language and addressing the imaging cuts contained in Children's Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP), as well as advocating for full accreditation for advanced diagnostic imaging services to resemble the ACR’s current programs.
The College continues to work closely with the Senate, turning its attention to crafting its own version of a Medicare policy — one that removes additional cuts to imaging. A likely scenario is that a final Medicare bill will be negotiated between the House and Senate later in the year as part of an omnibus package that will include several must-pass legislative initiatives. The College will continue to keep you updated on this process as it moves forward.
If you have questions, please contact Josh Cooper, ACR senior director of government relations and economic policy at jcooper@acr.org or Orrin Marcella, ACR assistant director of congressional affairs at omarcella@acr.org.