Congress Passes One Year ‘Doc Fix’ - December 14, 2010

Last week, Congress managed to pass one of its remaining “must pass” pieces of legislation, a one-year extension in Medicare’s physician payment “doc fix.” The extension averts a scheduled 25 percent reduction in Medicare payments to physicians until Dec. 31, 2011. The Doc Fix legislation includes a number of other health care related provisions, including:

• Extension of Medicare Therapy Caps - Extends the therapy caps exception process until Dec. 31, 2011.
• Clarification for Affiliated Hospitals for Distribution of Additional Residency Slots. The law makes a technical correction to Affordable Care Act to clarify that residency slots shared among teaching hospitals under an “affiliation agreement” would not be redistributed to other hospitals.
• Clarification for 340B “Orphan Drugs” at Children’s Hospitals. The law makes a technical correction to the Affordable Care Act allowing freestanding children’s hospitals to receive 340B discounts for “orphan drugs.”