Political Quotes

“The committee is working on that now. As the gentleman knows, we discuss this problem all the time. Of course, we had passed a Medicare physicians' reimbursement bill which precluded the 10 percent cut from going into effect, and it provided for a modest increase in the reimbursement rates to physicians. We passed that, of course, as you know, approximately, maybe, a little over a year ago. The Senate did not include it in the SCHIP bill, of which the SCHIP was a part of the CHAMP bill. The only thing they passed was SCHIP, and they indicated to us at that point in time that they would certainly pass the Medicare reimbursement. That has not yet happened. Unfortunately, the failure of that to happen has now put us in a position where we are facing the June 30 expiration date of the authorization and, therefore, the 10 percent reduction. Late yesterday, it was apparent that the Senate would not be able to reach a compromise or at least it had not with Chairman Rangel and Chairman Dingell after discussions--and I don't know how long those discussions took--yesterday with Chairman Bachus, and I don't know whether Senator Grassley was involved in those conversations. In any event, they determined that they needed to come up with legislation for the House to vote on to provide for reimbursement. They're working on that now. I expect it to be filed today, if possible.”