The House has overwhelmingly rejected the President's veto of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act by a vote of 383-41, the Senate by a vote of 70-26. President Bush said he supported the physician fee increase, but vetoed the measure due to the reduced Medicare managed care funding for private health plans to pay for the increase.

The legislation now becomes law; this is the third time this year that Congress has overridden a veto by President Bush. Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement after the Senate voted:

"Congress voted overwhelmingly to support America's seniors, veterans and their families and persons with disabilities. By overriding the President's ill-advised veto, Congress is standing with seniors who spoke clearly for quality affordable and reliable health care under Medicare and against bloated and unnecessary subsidies for insurance companies. By eliminating the pending 10 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors, we are helping to ensure that America's talented doctors and providers can continue to provide quality, affordable health care to America's seniors. And by providing additional help to low-income seniors and offering new preventive benefits under Medicare, this legislation will ensure that our seniors can remain healthy and productive well into their golden years. Because of today's overwhelming bipartisan votes in the House and Senate, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act is now the law of the land and America's seniors can celebrate this enormous victory."

Read the AMA statement at:
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/18788.html

DOTmed has been tracking the various controversial Medicare legislation and litigation. (See previous stories at DM 6467,DM 6416, DM 6348, DM 5973, DM 6043 DM 6215, 5773, 5662 and DM 6400).

The law blocks the 10.6 percent physician fee cut that took effect July 1, grants a 0.5 percent increase for the rest of this year, and allows a 1.1 percent hike in 2009. The law also repeals the Medicare lab competitive bidding demonstration. The launch of the project has been on hold in San Diego following an injunction in a federal lawsuit filed by local labs. The government had planned to implement the program on July 1.

A note to providers: The pathology "grandfather" protection is continued through 2009, allowing independent labs to bill Medicare separately for the technical component of anatomic pathology services to hospital inpatients and outpatients.

James H. Thrall, M.D. FACR, chair of the American College of Radiology Board of Chancellors had the following comments on the veto: "The final passage of this bill is a victory for medicine, radiology and all our patients. Not only did this congressional action end the specter of a 10.6 percent cut for all physicians, it also included the provisions of mandatory accreditation for those who perform advanced imaging services, and an appropriateness criteria pilot program to help physicians prescribe the most appropriate imaging exam. The College advocated strongly for these provisions. On behalf of ACR, I would like to extend a sincere thanks to those House and Senate members who voted to override the veto and support patients and the physicians who treat them."