Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Medicare Pay Fix Bill Includes Higher Costs For Some Seniors
Medicare recipients with income over $85,000 would begin paying higher Part B premiums in 2018 under legislation passed by the House Thursday to avert a cut in physician reimbursements. (Tumulty, 3/26)
Another key provision would pay doctors more for high-quality care rather than the volume of care. Everybody loves that, says Harvard鈥檚 Dr. Ashish Jha. The trouble is it鈥檚 very hard to measure "quality." 鈥淲e are going to focus on paying doctors for a lot of things. Some of which probably represent real quality and some of which clearly represent checking the box,鈥 he says. (Gorenstein, 3/26)
The bipartisan House bill to repeal the flawed Medicare physician payment formula includes an unlikely point of GOP agreement: billions of dollars to the community health centers that do some of the heaviest lifting in Obamacare enrollment. (Norman, 3/26)