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A few days after the chaos of a failed vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security, Speaker John Boehner asked for a meeting, alone, with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. Compromise was on his mind. With automatic cuts to doctors under Medicare set to take effect at the end of March, Boehner (R-Ohio) wanted to explore the possibility of a deal that would end the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR), and with it a problem that has dogged Congress for nearly two decades. The March 4 meeting in Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office on the second floor of the Capitol was brief, lasting only 11 minutes. But on the central question that has for years thwarted deal making between the parties — whether to raise taxes — Boehner got the answer he was looking for. Democrats would not insist on tax hikes in legislation ending the Medicare formula, Pelosi told Boehner. “That was, from our point of view, the breakthrough,” said Michael Steel, a Boehner spokesman. (Sullivan, 3/28)

The penultimate “doc fix” was what finally pushed John Boehner to say enough. It was last March, with big Medicare cuts to doctors again just a few days away and both Republican and Democratic opposition growing to the latest short-term remedy. House leaders stealthily put a bill up for a voice vote when no one was looking, a tactical move later decried by the rank and file. Shortly after that, the speaker decided that he was done with the increasingly messy and expensive Medicare payment fixes. (Haberkorn, 3/27)

After decades of last-minute deals to patch the Medicare payments system, the House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would insure that Medicare doctors continue to be paid at current rates. (Braverman, 3/30)

The fix isn't in yet, but it's close. The Senate adjourned for its spring break Friday without taking action on legislation permanently repealing and replacing Medicare's sustainable growth-rate physician-payment formula. That failure to act was greeted with widespread disappointment from healthcare groups, which had hoped that the decade long headache of short-term fixes would finally end. (Demko, 3/28)

Lately, in the House of Representatives, all it takes to claim a major success is a bill passed with support from both Republicans and Democrats. On Thursday, when the House passed a bill amending various provisions of Medicare, it was hailed as one of the most significant bipartisan achievements in years. In an interview that aired Sunday, Speaker John A, Boehner, Republican of Ohio, reflected on the bill’s passage, and called it “an opportunity that presented itself.” (Siddons, 3/29)

Republicans are looking like they’ve finally figured out how to govern. The GOP’s first months in control of both chambers of Congress were marked by high-profile stumbles and a near-shutdown of the Homeland Security Department. But this week, the party celebrated important successes. Republicans in both the House and the Senate came together to pass boldly conservative and balanced budgets, and House leaders struck a bipartisan deal on Medicare that passed on a huge vote and is expected to clear the Senate once lawmakers return from a two-week spring break. (Werner, 3/28)

The Senate budget would cut $4.3 trillion from benefit programs over the next 10 years, including annulling Obama's health care law, a step the president would without doubt veto. Those savings would include $431 billion from Medicare, matching Obama's figure. The House budget would pare $148 billion from the health care program for the elderly and convert it into a voucher-like program for future beneficiaries, a step the Senate shunned. (Fram, 3/27)