UPDATE: Bill to reduce Medicare base rate cuts passes Congress, signed by Bush

The Senate voted unanimously yesterday to pass a bill that would reduce Medicare's base rate cuts by half.

The bill, which passed the House on Wednesday, would slim Medicare's planned base rate cuts by half in fiscal years 2008 and 2009. Instead of cutting rates by 1.2 percent in FY2008 and 1.8 percent in FY2009, the rates would be cut by 0.6 percent and 0.9 percent respectively.

Rates may change after fiscal year 2010. According to the bill, the Secretary of Health and Human Services must determine whether MS-DRGs "resulted in changes in coding and classification that did not reflect real changes in casemix." If there are real casemix changes, Medicare is required to adjust their rates either higher or lower in fiscal years 2010, 2011 and 2012.

The bill now must be signed into law by Pres. Bush.

UPDATE: According to a White House news release, Pres. Bush signed the bill, HB 3668, into law over the weekend. (Hat tip to Michael Apolskis' Medicare Update.)