On Thursday, October 22nd, the Senate voted to limit debate and bring S. 1776, the Medicare Physicians Fairness Act of 2009 to the floor for a full vote, but failed to get the 60 votes needed to do so. The final vote tally was 57 no votes to 43 yes votes. Both Senator Bennet and Senator Udall voted yes on the bill.
The cost of the bill, the reason it was defeated, was $245 billion over the next ten years and did not provide any offsets. This means that the Finance Committee’s Health Reform bill (S 1796), which included a temporary “fix” to the 21.5 percent payment cut via the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula for Medicare physician pay, will most likely be included in the final bill brought to the Senate floor.
