Cap Urged on Hospitals’ Medicare Money
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An influential federal advisory commission says the financial condition of the nation’s hospitals has significantly improved, so there is no need for Congress to increase their Medicare payments, despite insistent pleas from the industry. If Congress accepts the advice, as it often does, lawmakers will have more money available for new Medicare benefits like prescription drug coverage. In the last 18 months, elderly people seeking drug benefits have found themselves competing with hospitals, nursing homes and other providers for a limited pot of federal money. Tricia Smith, chief federal health lobbyist at AARP, the nation’s largest organization of older Americans, welcomed the panel’s conclusion. “We have dedicated enough of the budget surplus to health care providers,” Ms. Smith said. “We now need to focus on prescription drugs and the concerns of beneficiaries.” Congress cut back Medicare payments to health care providers in 1997, under a law intended to balance the federal budget. But in November 1999 and in December of last year, Congress restored some of the money, increasing Medicare payments to almost all types of providers. More : nytimes.com |