Last weekend, President Obama proposed $313 billion in new Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement cuts to help pay for healthcare reform. These cuts would be in addition to the cuts that were proposed in the President’s budget. The new proposal includes cuts for almost all types of providers, including hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities.
Under the new proposal, payments to hospitals would be further reduced by an estimated $106 billion. The justification for the new reduction is that following healthcare reform, there should be fewer uninsured patients and hospitals will have to spend far less to provide care for them. The next-largest savings, another $75 billion, would be achieved by reducing reimbusements under Medicare Part D (the Medicare prescription drug benefit).
These proposals will undoubtedly change as healthcare reform discussions progress.
