Physician Fee Schedule: Impact on Therapy Services

Floor Speech

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, for the past 6 months I have come to the floor of the U.S. Senate to offer my doctor's ``second opinion'' about the health reform law. Day after day, week after week, we continue to see disturbing news reports uncovering the law's consequences--consequences that restrict individual freedoms, erode patient access to medical care, and increase our Nation's debt and deficit.

Specifically, I have listened closely as President Obama and congressional Democrats repeatedly try to convince the American people that the health care law does not cut Medicare. Having practiced medicine for well over two decades, I can tell you that the Nation's Medicare patients and Medicare providers are not fooled. They know the Democrat's health care law cuts over $500 billion from the Medicare Program. They know the law does not use that money to make sure Medicare is strong and solvent for generations to come. They know the law raids Medicare and uses the money to start a brand new entitlement program for the nonelderly.

America's seniors, and the medical professionals who treat them, understand that if we take over $500 billion away from Medicare then patients will lose benefits. They understand that if we take over $500 billion away from Medicare, then the quality of care will go down. They understand it will be increasingly difficult to see a doctor--especially in rural and frontier States like Wyoming. And they understand the local community hospitals, home health agencies, nursing homes, and skilled nursing facilities will struggle to keep their doors open.

Over the August work period, I traveled all across the State of Wyoming--talking to folks at town meetings, parades, picnics, fairs, and rodeos. Everyone agrees Medicare is going broke--and that the new health care law does nothing to fix the problem. In fact, it only serves to make a bad situation worse.

I want to share with the Senate a guest editorial printed in the Casper Journal. Written by Kathy Blair, a board certified orthopedic physical therapist, the article explains how proposed Medicare reimbursement cuts to physical and occupational therapists will limit patient access to medical care.

On Friday, June 25, 2010, the Obama administration released its proposed 2011 Physician Fee Schedule rule and regulation. The draft rule sets Medicare payments for individual physician services. As Kathy's editorial explains, the new health care law requires the Administration to institute a so-called Multiple Procedure Payment Reduction--MPPR. Originally designed to impact payment for multiple surgeries performed simultaneously, the administration now plans to apply the MPPR policy to physical and occupational therapy services. This move is expected to cut Medicare physical and occupational therapy payments next year by 12 percent.

I thank Kathy Blair for bringing this important matter to the Senate's attention and ask unanimous consent to have her editorial printed in the Record.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record,

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