Free Republic

The Senate has passed an 18-month Medicare physician payment bill that negates steep reductions in the Medicare physician payment rate for the remainder of this year and next year. The legislation now will go to President Bush."H.R. 6331" in the search box after selecting "Bill Number") maintains current Medicare payment levels for the rest of 2008 and provides a 1.1 percent increase in the Medicare payment rate in 2009, thus negating a 10.6 percent payment reduction that took effect on July 1 and an additional 5.4 percent reduction that was scheduled to take place in 2009. Bush has threatened to...

FINDINGS Influenza has been added to the recommended schedule of shots for all infants, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday. The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians recommend that, beginning in fall 2004, all children age 6 months to 23 months, as well as household and out-of-home caregivers for such children, receive an annual influenza vaccine, the CDC said. The CDC had been moving toward the recommendation even before this past flu season, which began early and featured a nasty strain of virus that killed...