Physician Pay Fix?

By a 238 to 181 vote, the House passed a bill on March 15 that would provide a permanent fix to the formulary by which Medicare pays physicians. But chances of the bipartisan legislation becoming law were torpedoed by the inclusion of a last-second GOP amendment that would offset the estimated $138 billion increase in federal spending by delaying the Affordable Care Act’s “individual mandate” provision, according to a March 15 article on the National Public Radio (NPR) website. The Obama administration said the president “would veto” the bill if it contains this funding mechanism, NPR said. “This bill will pass today and go nowhere," Rep. Frank Pallone, (D-N.J.), said, according to NPR. "It will not be taken up by the Senate. It will not be signed by the President. You have single-handedly, in my belief, stomped on months and months of hard work and effort by my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and our staffs.