12/13/2012    

HEALTHCARE NEWS

How the 'Fiscal Cliff' Affects Healthcare

The impending "fiscal cliff" is a package of automatic spending cuts and tax hikes set to kick in next month unless President Barack Obama and Capitol Hill agree on a way to stop them. Under the series of automatic spending cuts known as "sequestration," Medicare providers would be subject to an across-the-board 2 percent payment cut, or $11 billion in fiscal 2013.

Physicians who accept Medicare patients would face the 2 percent cut on top of an already scheduled 27 percent reduction in January unless Congress steps in to stop it. Medicaid does not face any automatic cuts starting Jan. 1. The Supreme Court's ruling made the health law’s Medicaid expansion optional for states, so there’s concern that any reductions in federal Medicaid spending might make governors even more reluctant to expand the federal-state program.

Source: Mary Agnes Carey, Kaiser Health News via Medscape News [12/6/12]