Senate Approves Delaying Physician Pay Cut Until October 1

The Senate voted on 03/10/2010 to delay a 21.2% physician pay cut in Medicare reimbursement until October 1. The bill that the Senate approved including a $138 billion package of legislation, including tax extenders and unemployment aid that the White House said is critically important to the country’s economic recovery.

The Baucus bill appears to be a compromise between senators who wanted to implement a one-year payment fix and others who were seeking another “short bridge” to give Congress more time to possibly repeal the formula that calls for annual physician payment cuts.