The bill heads to the Senate, which must act before the moratorium expires on April 1 and 2% cuts to Medicare kick in.
On a heavily partisan vote, U.S. House Democrats on Friday extended through the end of 2021 a moratorium on about $12 billion in Medicare sequester cuts that were supposed to take effect April 1.
The bill passed on a 246-175 vote, with unanimous support from Democrats and 29 Republicans, while 175 Republicans voted against it.
It now heads to the Senate, which must act before the March 29 Easter break to avoid the deadline.
The tepid support among Republicans is troubling for the bill's supporters because it cannot pass the Senate through reconciliation and would require 60 votes. It is not clear how much support the bill has among Senate Republicans.
A bill sponsored by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, would prevent the 2% sequestration cuts from taking effect during the COVID-19 public health emergency and would be paid for with a one-year extension of the sequestration period, which now expires in 2030.
The House bill also excludes the budgetary effects of this bill and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 from the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 scorecards, which otherwise could trigger across-the-board cuts to Medicare and other programs. Without this, additional sequester cuts will kick in at the end of session.
A Pay-As-You-Go sequester has never been triggered. Congress always pushes the deadline back.
The bill also makes technical changes to the rural health clinic provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. Specifically, the CAA required that the payment rate for RHCs certified after Dec. 31, 2019, be capped at $100 per visit, starting April 1, 2021. This rate will increase gradually through the Medicare Economic Index but will remain below provider-based RHC rates.
American Hospital Association President and CEO Rick Pollack thanked the House for passing the bill and urged the Senate to do the same.
"Now is not the time to pull resources away from these critical efforts," he said. "We now look forward to working with the U.S. Senate to achieve relief from the pending Medicare sequester cuts before they go into effect."
“Now is not the time to pull resources away from these critical efforts.”
Rick Pollack, president / CEO, AHA
John Commins is the news editor for HealthLeaders.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The bill passed on a 246-175 vote, with unanimous support from Democrats and 29 Republicans, while 175 Republicans voted against it.
It now heads to the Senate, which must act before the March 29 Easter break to avoid the deadline.
The tepid support among Republicans is troubling because it cannot pass the Senate through reconciliation and would require 60 votes.
It is not clear how much support the bill has among Senate Republicans.