Tennessee’s Republican Senators helped make yesterday’s vote on Medicare cuts veto-proof.
The bill stops a 10.6% cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients. Both Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander initially voted against the measure.
Senator Bob Corker told Capitol News Connection he switched his vote because Senate Democrats agreed to legislation that would help the Regional Medical Center in Memphis. The MED, as it is known, is the primary emergency hospital in an area that includes uninsured and Medicaid patients from Mississippi and Arkansas, as well as Tennessee. Uninsured patients account for $80 million in annual uncompensated healthcare costs at the hospital. Corkers says Senate leaders told him they would eventually pass legislation that would reinstate the MED’s ability to recieve payments for treating such patients.
“While it is not apart of this bill I am convinced that leadership will cause it to be reality before the end of this year so I am going to hold them to their word and we will see.”
Republican Senator Lamar Alexander issued a statement after yesterday’s vote saying, like Corker, he switched his vote because of the leadership’s commitment to help the MED.
The bill also delays Medicare’s competitive bidding initiative. Nashville-based AmMed, a mail order diabetic testing supplier, would have lost 6,000 customers under the initiative. The Senate action delays it by 18 months.
Our poltical reporting from Capitol News Connection in Washington is made possible, in part, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and PRI – Public Radio International.
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