In their continued focus on Medicare, the House Ways and
Means committee asked for public comment Friday on
draft legislation prosing three modifications to Medicare’s benefits system
that were made by the Obama administration. The committee, which has a
Republican majority, didn’t necessarily endorse the proposals, but still published
them for comments until August 16th.
As reported by CQ, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the
three proposed changes would save more than $60 billion over 10 years. The
changes would increase premiums that wealthier beneficiaries pay for services
under Medicare Parts B and D, increase the deductible for Part B services, and
create a copayment for home health services. Without and changes, the Medicare
Trustee Report projects that the trust fund will become insolvent by 2026.
The bill would also increase the lowest income-related
premium from 35 percent to 40 percent, and increase the premiums for other
income brackets, with a cap of 90 percent at the highest tier. Income
thresholds associated with those premiums until 25 percent of beneficiaries are
subject to the higher premiums would also be maintained. The proposal would
apply a $25 increase to the Part B deductible in 2017, 2019, and 2021 for new
Medicare beneficiaries, and would add a new $100 copayment for home health
episodes for new beneficiaries beginning in 2017.
Currently, beneficiaries are
not required to make a copayment for home health services, which are paid based
on a pre-determined daily rate for each 60-day episode of care. The copayment
would be preempted if the home health episode was directly preceded by a
hospital stay or inpatient post-acute care stay.
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