Lawmakers Begin Heavy Lifting to Overhaul Doctor Payment

By John Reichard, CQ HealthBeat Editor A House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee hearing Thursday suggested that after years of short-term patches to head off payment cuts, lawmakers at last may be taking on the heavy burden of trying to fundamentally overhaul Medicare's troubled physician payment system. Ironically, what may be driving them to finally confront the problem is the quiet recognition that they are going have to abandon the fiscal discipline involved in the system now in order to complete the overhaul of a payment formula widely viewed as no longer tenable.