House Republicans are moving closer to their goal of having a Medicare physician payment fix on the floor by the August congressional recess. House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Chairman Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) told me that the Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means Committees will release legislative text of their proposal Memorial Day week for comment by physician groups. The legislative draft will be the subject of a June 5 hearing, Pitts said.  

Staff aides from the committees are scheduled to meet with physician groups May 28 to discuss the latest proposal. The committees already have produced two drafts of a proposal that would replace the current physician payment system with one based on quality measures and new payment systems.  

Lawmakers are hoping a new less expensive cost estimate by the Congressional Budget Office for repealing the current system will spur action this year on a permanent fix after a decade of failed attempts and short-term fixes. CBO has lowered the cost of freezing physicians’ pay for a decade by about $100 billion, to $139 billion, due to lower than expected Medicare cost growth.