The United States House and Senate recently voted to override President Bush’s veto of HR 6331 the “Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act of 2008.”  In its key provisions, the bill cancels the scheduled 11% pay cut to physicians treating Medicare patients and ensures a 1.1% reimbursement increase for 2009.  The bill further provides: funding for a Medicare study on the impact of programs to reimburse primary care physicians for care coordination; an increased payment for office and hospital visits; Medicare coverage for preventive health services; and a gradual reduction in co-payments for mental health benefits.  President Bush’s veto was largely due to his opposition to an approximately 13 billion dollar reduction in reimbursements to private insurers contracting with Medicare to provide benefits to Medicare enrollees under “Medicare Advantage Plans.”  These reductions will now go through.

      Bicameral support of HR 6331 signals an important acknowledgment by Congress that continued reductions in Medicare reimbursement will further strain physicians already seeing Medicare reimbursements dwindle each year.