Our Senators are also working on a similar bill to strengthen Medicare. In order for that to happen, changes were made in Medicare to make the program more efficient and effective. When the BBA passed, budget projections for the future were made to predict the amount of savings that would be needed to save Medicare. But, in many areas, savings are far above the projections made when the bill passed 3 years ago. As a result, many of the savings and changes went too far and now threaten access to care and quality of care for future health care patients.
Savings are double the intended projections.
For our health providers, the problem centers around the reductions in payments from Medicare for the services they provide for Medicare patients. Another major problem hospitals face is the introduction of a new payment system scheduled to go into effect next summer. This new payment system would dramatically reduce payments to hospitals with rural hospitals bearing the largest share of the burden. To address these critical problems, I am fighting to exempt small, rural hospitals with 100 beds or less from entering the new payment system. This would protect smaller hospitals from the harmful effects of the new system.