SCHIP/Medicare bill split
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
House and Senate leaders agree in closed-door meetings last week to split off controversial Medicare provisions from State Children's Health Insurance Program legislation in an effort to move the SCHIP provisions through conference before the program sunsets Sept. 30. The Medicare provisions, included only in the House-passed version of the bill, threaten to severely cut imaging and other device-related payments. AdvaMed's Senior Executive VP David Nexon suggests new industry-backed provisions to improve payments for molecular diagnostics and remote monitoring could be tacked on when the Medicare package resurfaces later this year, or potentially to a "second SCHIP bill" if President Bush vetoes the first bill, as threatened Sept. 20 (1"The Gray Sheet" Aug. 20, 2007, p. 4)