--Tax credits will be provided to small businesses that offer health insurance to their employees, at first up to 35 percent of their contributions and later up to 50 percent.

Medicaid Coverage


--The Chairman's Mark would create a new eligibility category for all non-elderly, non-pregnant individuals (childless adults) who are otherwise currently ineligible for Medicaid. Those individuals who earn up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level ($14,400 for an individual) would be eligible. Prescription drug benefits would also be guaranteed to all Medicaid beneficiaries.

Changes in Medicare

--A ten percent bonus on select evaluation & management codes under the Medicare fee schedule would be given to primary care practitioners for five years, beginning January 1, 2011. This applies to practitioners who have a specialty designation of family medicine, internal medicine, geriatric medicine, or pediatric medicine and furnish 60 percent of their services in the select codes. In addition, general surgeons providing care in a Health Professional Shortage Area would also be eligible for a ten percent bonus on major procedure codes for five years, beginning January 1, 2011.

--The Medicare Part D "donut hole" gap will be addressed by those Part D beneficiaries with low or moderate incomes receiving a fifty percent discount on brand-name drugs in their plan.

--The impending 22% cut for physicians in 2010 based on the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula would be replaced with a positive update next year.

--Hospitals' Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital payments would be reduced.

---The Utilization Rate assumption for advanced imaging equipment would be increased from 50 percent to 65 percent for 2010 through 2013, then further increased to 75 percent beginning in 2014. The technical component payment reduction for sequential imaging services on contiguous body parts during the same visit would increase from 25 percent to 50 percent.

Medical Malpractice Reform

--The Chairman's Mark would express the Sense of the Senate to take opportunity for tort reform in regard to medical malpractice and medical liability insurance issues. This includes encouraging development of alternatives to civil litigation as means of improving patient safety and medical errors, as well as addressing better access to liability insurance and encouraging more efficient resolution of disputes.

Finally, in order to help finance the cost of health care reform, the Chairman's Mark proposal has the following options:

More Industry Headlines