Delay on Doctors’ Medicare Pay Cut Gives Time for Longer Fix
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A one-month deal to delay a 23 percent reduction to doctors’ Medicare pay rates will buy more time for U.S. lawmakers who are seeking to hold off future cuts.
Medicare, the U.S. government health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, has cost control formulas that demand the rate cuts. Senator Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, and Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the committee’s senior Republican, reached an agreement that will postpone the doctor pay cut until Jan. 1 from Dec. 1.