Medicare Part B Premiums to increase 11.2% in 2007 to
nearly $100 per month, Bush Administration says
[Jul 12, 2006]
The monthly premium for Medicare Part B will increase a
projected 11.2% next year to at least $98.40, although the increase
might be slightly higher, the Bush administration announced on
Tuesday, the
AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. The current
monthly premium is $88.50 (Freking,
AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
7/11).
According to a
CMS
fact sheet released on Tuesday, overall Part B expenditures
increased by 11% in 2005, including a 10% increase in expenditures
for physicians' services and an 11% increase for outpatient hospital
services. "The main reason for these increases in total expenditures
is increases in the volume and intensity of physician and outpatient
hospital services over the last several years," the fact sheet
states, adding,
"[R]apid growth in services administered in
physicians' offices is driven by more use of more intensive
physicians' services, including imaging, physician-administered
drugs, minor procedures, physical therapy, dermatology, lab tests,
and evaluation and management services." According to the fact
sheet, "Use of many of these services varies substantially across
practices and geographic areas, with no clear impacts on patient
health" (CMS
release,
7/11).
Increase Could Be Higher
According to the
AP/Post-Intelligencer,
the estimated increase "assume[s] that Congress will reduce Medicare
payment rates for physicians by about 4.7% next year" (AP/Post-Intelligencer,
7/11). Medicare physician reimbursements are scheduled to be cut on
Jan. 1, 2007, unless Congress intervenes. Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.)
and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) in a recent letter to Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid
(D-Nev.) called on the Senate to increase Medicare physician
reimbursements before it adjourns in October (Kaiser
Daily Health Policy Report, 7/11). If Congress
does reverse the cut, Medicare costs will increase, possibly
resulting in higher monthly premiums, the
AP/Post-Intelligencer
reports.
Comments
CMS Administrator Mark McClellan said the premium increase is the
result of an increase in the volume of care provided to
beneficiaries, adding, "We can't keep pumping more money into a
payment system that is not sustainable." Kirsten Sloan, chief health
lobbyist for
AARP,
said, "We're going on several years of repeated double-digit
increases, and it's also roughly three times the rate of the Social
Security increase." Sloan said Congress should pass legislation that
would increase the use of health care information technology, such
as electronic health records, which she said would slow cost
increases and reduce medical errors (AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
7/11).