Medicare fee cut in effect until Congress returns.(News)

Expect at least a month's worth of Medicare payment reductions until Congress reconciles on the provisions of a spending bill at the end of January.

"We got coal in our Christmas stocking," not a positive update or a permanent fix to the formula's sustainable growth rate, Dr. Larry Fields, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, said in an interview.

The 2006 Medicare physician payment cut of 4.4%, which began Jan. 1, is the first of 6 years of planned cuts totaling 26%. During this same time, practice costs will increase at least 15%, according to statistics from the American Medical Association.

A measure to stop the 4.4% cut went un-addressed when procedural issues in the Senate and House prevented final action on the 2005 budget reconciliation package.

Although both houses approved the pay freeze, the Senate accepted a number of procedural moves that altered the conference report, and the bill had to go back to the House for final approval.

"Instead of electing to let [House] leaders hash it out and then let the bill go through, Rep. Nancy Pelosi [D-Calif.] demanded a roll call vote--which cannot be taken into consideration until Jan. 31, when Congress returns," Dr. Fields said.

With no legislation passed by both houses and signed by the president, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is bound by law to put the cuts into place, he added.