All healthcare reform initiatives on the table would have a special impact on clinical laboratories and pathologists because they would accelerate the current drive to link payment to the reporting of quality performance measures and to require interoperable health information technology (HIT) and e-health records to reduce medical errors and improve patient safety.
Sidebar: 45% Threshold Would Trigger Medicare Spending Cuts
With Medicare spending already squeezed by the growing federal deficit, a provision in current law that could force program spending cuts, once a certain threshold has been reached, will get a second look from the House Ways & Means health subcommittee as part of its Medicare oversight agenda this year, said full committee chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY).
At issue is a provision in the 2003 Medicare reform law under which Medicare trustees must determine whether projected general revenue funding will exceed 45% of Medicare financing within the next seven years. If the trustees make such a determination two years in a row, a Medicare funding warning is sounded, requiring the President to respond to the warning in his next budget submission. The law then requires Congress to consider the proposal on a fast-track basis.
The trustees issued their first warning in 2006 and are likely to issue a second this year, triggering the provision and likely a discussion on entitlement spending. Ways & Means health subcommittee chairman Pete Stark (CA) said legislation may be needed to preserve Medicare’s entitlement nature.
January 29, 2007 - Table of Contents
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