CQ's Carey Addresses Medicare Part B Premium Increase, Not-For-Profit Hospitals' Charity Care, Physician Pressure To Address Scheduled Medicare

Mary Agnes Carey, associate editor of CQ HealthBeat, discusses the Medicare Part B premium increase, not-for-profit hospitals' benefits to communities and legislation that would stop a 5.1% decrease in Medicare payments -- scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2007 -- in this week's "Health on the Hill for kaisernetwork and CQ." According to Carey, CMS announced last week that premiums for Medicare Part B, which provides coverage for physician visits and outpatient services, will increase 5.6% to $93.50 per month in 2007. The increase -- the smallest since 2001 -- is lower than the 11.2% increase CMS predicted in July. In addition, CMS announced that, for the first time, beneficiaries earning $80,000 or more per year, or couples earning $160,000 or more per year, will pay a larger portion of their premiums beginning next year. The highest-income beneficiaries will pay 80% of their premiums by 2010, according to CMS. Carey also discusses an investigation requested by Senate Finance Committee Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to help determine whether not-for-profit hospitals provide enough charity care and other community benefits. Representatives from not-for-profit hospitals at a Finance Committee hearing testified that the facilities provide community services such as trauma units, charity care and financial aid to low-income patients. Both lawmakers and witnesses at the hearing raised concerns that there are too many cases in which not-for-profit hospitals charge uninsured patients more than insured patients for the same services or do not inform uninsured patients of charity care programs, Carey says. Finally, Carey discusses calls from physicians for Congress to act on legislation that would stop a scheduled 5.1% decrease in Medicare payments. Carey says that physicians want a 2% increase in Medicare payments, with additional payments for reporting quality measures to Medicare. She adds that the House Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce committees and the Senate Finance Committee are drafting legislation to address the issue, but if action is not taken soon, the legislation likely will be left for the "lame duck" session in November (Carey, "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork and CQ," 9/18).

The complete audio version of "Health on the Hill," transcript and resources for further research are available online.

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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