The president has vetoed the Medicare package, H.R. 6331, which included a delay to round one of CMS’s national competitive bidding program.
H.R. 6331 proposes to delay implementation of national competitive bidding by between 18 and 24 months, with the HME industry paying for the delay via 9.5 percent price cuts to DME and services covered by competitive bidding, except for oxygen and power wheelchairs.
“The legislation would leave the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund vulnerable to litigation because of the revocation of the awarded contracts,” read a portion of the President’s message to Congress today. “Changing policy in mid-stream is also confusing to beneficiaries who are receiving services from quality suppliers at lower prices. In order to slow the growth in Medicare spending, competition within the program should be expanded, not diminished.”
The House of Representatives will debate and vote on an override to the president’s veto today, and the Senate is likely to vote either today or tomorrow, according to a statement from AA Homecare.
After the Bill passed with a 355 to 59 majority in the House, the Senate voted on July 9 by a a 69 to 30 margin to approve a cloture motion to cease debate over H.R. 6331, and because of a rule for the cloture vote, the two-thirds approval vote also meant that the Senate passed the underlying bill.
At that point, it went to the President’s desk to be either signed into law, or vetoed. White House Deputy Communications Director Tony Fratto made clear the President’s intentions to veto the bill during a July 10 Washington D.C. press briefing.
