Senator Bunning: Persona Non Grata Among Practicing Physicians

Doctors across the United States are throwing hate bombs in the direction of Kentucky, the home of Senator Jim Bunning. The ire is in response to the Senator's repeated objections yesterday and today to delay the upcoming 21% Medicare reimbursement cuts. The cuts are due to occur Monday, March 1, if legislation to postpone the measure is not passed by Congress.

Bunning delayed passage of last-minute legislation that would extend unemployment benefits, highway funding, and current Medicare reimbursement rates that were due to expire at the end of this month. Bunning's justification for his lone obstinacy is that the extensions would increase the government's budget deficit, according to several news sources. The political fallout for the Senator is minimized, because he does not plan to seek re-election.

For continuing coverage of this developing story, hit the NYT's The Caucus Blog.

Update: To ease the financial hardship for physicians who are dependent on Medicare reimbursement and to buy time for the passage of retroactive legislation, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will not process March claims for the first 10 days of the month, reports Medscape. CMS has instigated delays in claims processing before, when Medicare cuts loomed: once in July 2008, and once in December 2009. The cuts in Medicare reimbursement are determined by CMS's sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula.

Photo of Senator Bunning from http://bunning.senate.gov/.