American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act – HR 4213

Funny title that is rather misleading given the gravity of the health care/post-acute care provisions that are included in this bill.  As is the case in Washington, especially these days, important health care provisions not addressed in the PPACA are coming forward in other bills; particularly bills involving unemployment benefits and COBRA benefits, etc.  Such is the case in this rather large expenditure bill which by title, is aimed at extending unemployment benefits, creating tax deductibility for COBRA premiums and removing a host of tax loopholes or tax deductions as some may call them. 

Imbedded within the bill are a series of important health care related provisions.  Briefly summarized, the provisions are;

• A six month extension of the additional federal Medicaid match originally provided under the Stimulus bill.  The current added match is set to expire on December 31.  The extension provided under this bill would continue the match through June 30 of next year.  Fundamentally the issue here is the feds trying to provide a softer cushion or landing area for the states given the ramp-up in Medicaid spending that is coming under the PPACA, the current economies of most states (poor) and the harbinger of pending Medicaid cuts most states will require to keep their programs afloat.  While this match is likely a good thing in the interim, recall that it is in effect like giving a crack addict more crack.  Under Medicaid, the additional match comes only with additional state spending; spending that most states cannot afford without the additional federal money.  Unless the federal money is continually extended in some shape or form, the states will likely face the prospect of cutting their Medicaid budgets at some point, regardless of any economic recovery.
• A provision that staves off any cuts to the physician fee schedule until 2014.  This doc-fix element includes increases in 2010 (for the balance of year) and 2011 with no increase specifically factored for 2012 and 2013 although, if spending on physician care remains (during this period) within Medicare spending limits, an increase may occur.  In 2014, the physician fee schedule would return to the current law based on the sustainable growth formula (per CBO, a cut in 2014 of 30%).  In addition, since Part B therapy rates are tied to the physician fee schedule, the rate cuts that are pending would be automatically fixed (in concert with the doc-fix) and in actuality, increases in rates would be forthcoming.  Physician fee-schedule cuts and the issue of physician fees being tied to the antiquated sustainable growth formula was a matter of contention during health care reform debate.  The House had passed a broad, permanent fix but the Senate failed to act.  The Senate desired something more temporary and less costly.  The final legislation as passed (PPACA) didn’t address the matter at all with the exception of counting the savings from the projected cuts as part of the financing elements that produced the “budget deficit reduction” effect.  In other words, Congress used the projected savings from the cuts as means of creating a positive financial projection from the CBO.  Most policy analysts and economists have claimed all along that one of the significant “risks” with the PPACA positive projections lied with the fortitude of Congress to sustain the significant Medicare cuts contained in the bill.  This measure is likely to create renewed calls that Congress is incapable of sustaining the Medicare cuts and in actuality, and as I have written multiple times before, the PPACA is nowhere close to deficit reducing.
• The bill also contains a provision requiring CMS to implement RUGs IV by October 1, in concert with the roll-out and implementation of MDS 3.0.  This is a good thing for SNFs.  Without RUGS IV going hand-in-hand with MDS 3.0, there would be no case-mix payment system that matched the new assessment tool.  RUGs III is correlated to MDS 2.0. The end result would likely be comedic and tragic all at the same time as SNFs would have to complete the new MDS and try to correlate payment back to a case-mix system that didn’t match the new assessment tool.  I, and others, envisioned payment snafus abundant and the work to sort it out come RUGs IV roll-out in 2011, the responsibility of the SNF.

The Apex Healthcare E-Newsletter (my organization’s newsletter) for May was just released and posted yesterday and in this issue you can find additional information regarding this topic (the physician fee schedule fix and RUGs IV)  http://apexhealthcareconsultants.info/category/may-news-2010/