Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 6331, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008.

Most importantly, this legislation prevents the impending 10 percent cut in Medicare payments to physicians for the remainder of 2008 and provides a 1.1 percent update in physician payments for 2009. The uncertainty of Medicare payments makes it difficult for physicians and their practices to plan for the expenses that they will incur as they serve Medicare beneficiaries. And in turn, beneficiaries will face increasing difficulties accessing physicians who accept Medicare. What we need to do is address this issue in the long term by reforming the flawed reimbursement formulas. By addressing this issue in the short term through 2009, we will provide Congress with the needed time to study and develop a long term solution to this problem.

Not only would we prevent cuts in Medicare physician reimbursements, the bill will make important and necessary improvements to the Medicare program by enhancing Medicare preventative and mental health benefits, improving assistance for low-income Medicare beneficiaries, and extending expiring provisions for rural and other providers.

And this legislation is fully paid for. It reduces Medicare Advantage Indirect Medical Education IME, overpayments, which are being paid twice: once to the teaching facility itself, and again to Medicare Advantage plans, with no requirement that plans pass the IME payment along to the teaching facility. H.R. 6331 will eliminate the needless double payment by still reimbursing the teaching facility directly for the higher cost of care, but ceasing IME payments to Medicare Advantage plans.

I am pleased that this legislation contains a provision that makes a technical correction to ensure that all physicians, including podiatrists, are permitted to perform required face-to-face examinations so that they are able to prescribe Medicare-covered durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies, DMEPOS. This provision corrects a drafting error in the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act that pointed to the wrong definition of physician in the Social Security Act when requiring face-to-face examination in order to prescribe DMEPOS items.

I am also pleased that the bill includes a two-year reauthorization of the Special Diabetes Programs for Type 1 Diabetes and the Special Diabetes Programs for Native Americans at current funding levels. It is vital that this successful program be reauthorized on a multi-year basis so that the National Institutes of Health, NIH, can invest in new research. Without this reauthorization, NIH would have to begin to shut down research projects that are currently underway.

Mr. Speaker, we owe it to provide and beneficiaries to make these modest improvements to the Medicare program now. This bill will protect our seniors. The clock is ticking. I urge my colleagues to support this much-needed legislation.

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