Rep. Lee Urges White House and Congressional Leadership to Stop Harmful Cuts to Hospitals, Doctors
“Cutting Medicare Reimbursement to Our Health Care Heroes During a Pandemic is Simply Unacceptable”
WASHINGTON – Today, Rep. Susie Lee (NV-03) joined 17 of her colleagues in sending a letter to President Biden and leadership in the House and Senate urging preventative action against harmful cuts to Medicare reimbursements. These cuts are set to take effect on January 1st, 2022 and would devastate frontline workers, including those at hospitals and other health care settings.
The lawmakers write: "We write today to strongly urge quick and decisive action to prevent the harmful cuts to our nation's hospitals, doctors and other health care professionals that are set to take effect on January 1, 2022. Cutting Medicare reimbursement to our health care heroes during a pandemic is simply unacceptable. We stand ready to work with you to introduce, whip for, and vote to pass legislation to reverse these cuts, as well to work with you to identify ways to pay for reversing these cuts. We are opposed to paying for preventing these cuts with additional provider cuts."
Rep. Lee was joined in sending the letter by Reps. Susan Wild, Cindy Axne, Colin Allred, Carolyn Bourdeaux, Angie Craig, Sharice Davids, Anthony Delgado, Lizzie Fletcher, Steven Horsford, Andy Kim, Conor Lamb, Susie Lee, Lucy McBath, Tom O'Halleran, Chris Pappas, Mikie Sherrill, Tom Malinowski and Haley Stevens.
In addition to her work to stop Medicare cuts, Rep. Lee has been vocal about the need to lower the cost of prescription drugs for Americans, including by allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of some prescription drugs. To this end, she sent a letter to leadership this summer and in November to urge the inclusion of drug pricing reform in the Build Back Better Act, and successfully secured a cap on out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs for seniors, the ability for Medicare to negotiate the price of some prescription drugs, and a cap on the price of insulin in the House-passed version of the spending bill.
The full text of the letter is available here and below:
Dear President Biden, Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McConnell, Speaker Pelosi, and Minority Leader McCarthy,
We write today to strongly urge quick and decisive action to prevent the harmful cuts to our nation's hospitals, doctors and other health care professionals that are set to take effect on January 1, 2022. Cutting Medicare reimbursement to our health care heroes during a pandemic is simply unacceptable. We stand ready to work with you to introduce, whip for, and vote to pass legislation to reverse these cuts, as well to work with you to identify ways to pay for reversing these cuts. We are opposed to paying for preventing these cuts with additional provider cuts.
As you know, there are several cuts that are set to take effect on January 1, 2022. Among these are the expiration of a 3.75% payment adjustment to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Conversion Factor, a 2% cut to providers as a result of sequestration, and a 4% cut due to Statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) being triggered. Additionally, we need to reverse looming cuts to radiation oncologists set to take effect under the Radiation Oncology Alternative Payment Model.
All of these cuts can and should be prevented. In previous years Congress has not allowed Statutory PAYGO cuts to take effect and we have found offsets to pay for reversing other similar cuts. We must act soon to give our health care providers certainty as January 1st approaches.
Thank you for your leadership in working with us to beat the pandemic and build a stronger America. We appreciate your time and consideration and look forward to working with you to ensure we reverse these cuts before the new year.
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