We're talking, of course, about the recent successful effort in Washington, D.C., to stop a scheduled 10 percent across-the-board cut in reimbursement rates to physicians who treat Medicare recipients.
Scheduled cuts like this one are supposed to be triggered whenever Congress approves an increase in Medicare spending, which it seems to manage to do every few years. However, legislation to block the cuts to physicians received widespread support, sailing through the House with 355 state representatives voting to stop the cut and only 59 voting to let it go forward. Then, on Wednesday, the Senate approved similar legislation on a 69-30 vote.
But we would be remiss if we failed to highlight Rehberg, one of the longest-standing members of the U.S. House of Representatives, for crossing party lines on an issue of utmost importance to Montanans. While crossing party lines doesn't always deserve praise, it does on this issue.
Stopping the rate cut was the right thing to do, as there is little doubt that, had it gone into effect as scheduled on July 1, it would have forced an already difficult situation into a downright dire one. Fortunately, the Bush administration agreed to suspend the scheduled rate cut while legislation to block it was being debated in Congress.
The current reimbursement rate to primary care physicians and many other doctors already does not cover the full costs of treating Medicare patients, a situation that some believe is driving more new physicians toward specialties that pay more - and contributing to the shortage of primary care doctors.
The nation's health care industry is bracing for waves of Baby Boomer retirees, meaning it will be losing skilled health care workers just as the demand for health care services peaks.
The Missoulian has been reporting on the impact to seniors and the disabled in Missoula and throughout Montana. About 135,000 Montanans are covered by Medicare, but many local physicians and clinics have stopped accepting new Medicare patients.
Missoula is purportedly a health care hub for western Montana, but you can count on your fingers the number of, say, internal medicine doctors in the area. In contrast, you'd need a calculator to add up the thousands of Medicare patients - the elderly and disabled - who rely on Missoula doctors for care. It's hard enough for residents of more rural, outlying areas to get regular access to any health care, let alone a doctor willing to deal with the reams of paperwork and low reimbursement rates Medicare requires.
Baucus no doubt had this in mind when he vowed to continue pushing to stop the scheduled pay cut, even after it failed, by a single vote, to move forward two weeks ago.
We should make it a point to let Baucus, Tester and especially Rehberg know that this is exactly the sort of thing we expect from our elected officials. They deserve our thanks for recognizing a good thing for the people of Montana and standing together in support of it.
We should show them that the people of Montana know a good thing when we see it, too.
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