Fiscal Cliff Legislation Adjusts ESRD Payment Bundle To Help Offset Doc Fix

In legislation passed by both chambers of Congress Jan. 1, the cost of a one-year reprieve from sharp cuts to Medicare physician payments, scheduled to begin in 2013, would be offset by a reduction in Medicare’s bundled payment for end-stage renal disease. The reduced payment would take into account a drop in the use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents observed over the last several years.

The eleventh-hour legislative deal reached in Congress on New Year’s Day to avert the so-called fiscal cliff includes a provision to stave off sharp cuts in Medicare payments to physicians for one year, paid for in part by reducing Medicare’s bundled payment for the treatment of end-stage renal disease, including drug therapy, beginning in 2014.

H.R. 8, the American Taxpayer Relief Act, passed the House and Senate Jan.1 and is expected to be...

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