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The United States Congress passed the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 (S. 2499), that for six months suspends the scheduled cuts in the Medicare fee schedule and the return of the therapy caps. More specifically, the legislation which is expected to be signed into law by President Bush before the end of the year would:
- halt the scheduled 10% cut to the Medicare fee schedule rates and provide a 0.5% increase until June 30, 2008;
- extend the exceptions process to the Medicare therapy caps until June 30, 2008; and
- permanently freeze further implementation of Medicare's so-called "75% Rule" on inpatient rehabilitation facilities at 60%.
The Democratically-led Congress and the Bush Administration were unable to reach agreement on policy changes to Medicare and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Instead, they agreed to delay further negotiations until next year and pass a short-term "patch" to prevent a 10% cut to the fee schedule and expiration of a number of policies that are scheduled to take place at the end of the calendar year. CMS is expected to immediately implement new regulations for the fee schedule and exceptions process that will be in effect for the first six months of 2008. ASHA will provide updates on these rules once they are available.
Early next year, Medicare negotiations are expected to resume and congressional leadership hopes a Medicare package will be passed before June 30, 2008. ASHA will continue to fight for increases to the Medicare fee schedule, repeal of the therapy caps, supplier status for speech-language pathologists, and direct access to audiologists. We encourage you to write to your legislators on these issues in the first few months of 2008. Draft e-mails on all of these issues and contact information for your legislators are available on ASHA's Take Action Web site. For further information, please contact Ingrida Lusis, by e-mail at ilusis@asha.org or by calling 800-498-2071, ext. 5671.
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