Amendment to prevent proposed IPPS cuts passes in House

The House voted 412-12 today in favor of an amendment to the fiscal year 2008 Labor-HHS appropriations bill that would prevent the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services from prospectively cutting as much as $24 billion from inpatient hospital services. The amendment, offered by Reps. John Lewis (D-GA), Peter Welch (D-VT) and Jerry Weller (R-IL), would prohibit CMS from prospectively implementing the 2.4% “behavioral offset” that would cut Medicare payments for hospital services by $24 billion. It also would have CMS delay for one year implementation of the Medicare Severity Diagnosis-related Groups, as required in the proposed inpatient prospective payment system rule for FY 2008.