The National Journal - Congress Pleads for CMS to Stop Private Medicare Cuts

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By Dalyan Scott

It's become an annual tradition: The Obama administration proposes Medicare Advantage cuts, the insurance industry and members of Congress from both parties lobby to stop them, and the cuts get walked back.

A group of 239 House members is sending a letter, provided exclusively to National Journal, to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Thursday, urging the agency to reverse the cuts to the private Medicare plans, which serve 16 million seniors, that CMS proposed last month.

"The newly proposed cuts could represent a significant threat to the health and financial security of seniors in our congressional districts who rely on their MA plans to meet their health care needs," says the letter circulated by Reps. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Patrick Murphy, D-Fla.

"As CMS works to finalize 2016 payment rates," the letter says, "we strongly urge you to protect Medicare beneficiaries by reversing the proposed payment cuts and providing a stable policy environment for the MA program."

Toward the end of February, CMS proposed a 0.9 percent cut in payments to Medicare Advantage plans, which are administered by private insurers as an alternative to traditional Medicare, for fiscal 2016, according to Reuters. (The exact impact would vary from plan to plan.)

Obamacare authorized cuts to the program, but CMS's proposals have annually received aggressive pushback from America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry's main lobbying group.

In each of the past two years, that lobbying seems to have succeeded with CMS softening its proposed cuts, though insurers say they have still seen reduced payments. Insurers are hoping for a repeat this year; they now have the House letter to pair with a letter signed last month by 53 senators. Health care providers, such as the American Hospital Association, are also opposed to the cuts.

The final 2016 Medicare Advantage rates will be announced in April.

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