On the recordMarch 16, 2010
I would just go back, too, to that instance with the Deficit Reduction Act, where a small difference in the House- and Senate-passed bills led to a court challenge, and we came back in January. We left on December 21st or whatever day it was when we passed that bill out of the House, it went over to the Senate, there was a problem, they couldn't fix it under unanimous consent because of an objection, and we had to repass the bill in January. The reason I know this is because there was one of those doc fixes in that bill. And the doc fix did not go into effect December 31 and every doctor who saw Medicare patients across the country took a 6 percent ding in their Medicare reimbursement rates because we had not passed the bill by January 1. Now, Dr. McClellan, Mark McClellan, to his credit, who at the time was Director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, came back and said, you don't have to refile those claims, we will take care of them if Congress passes the bill within a month or two of coming back, which we did. So they went back and reimbursed. But a terribly, terribly complicated process. All of it was brought up because one or two words different in the bills, because the Constitution says we shall pass the same bill and then it goes down to the President for signature.
