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Medicare Therapy At Risk 

It's bad enough that Congress has been playing Russian roulette with doctors and 
Medicare/TRICARE patients by waiting until the very last minute to address the 10.6% cut
 in those programs' payments to doctors now scheduled to take place on July 1. 
But there's another problem that will immediately disrupt care on July 1 for hundreds of 
thousands of Medicare patients undergoing physical, speech, or occupational therapy if 
Congress doesn't act in the next two weeks. 

More than 10 years ago, Congress passed a law capping Medicare payments for such 
therapy at $1,810 a year. That's not nearly enough to cover the cost of care for stroke 
victims and others requiring extensive therapy. So Congress has acted every year to 
either delay implementation of the cap or grant broad exceptions. 

But those exceptions expire July 1. If Congress doesn't act by then, large numbers of 
Medicare patients will have to stop getting therapy, start paying for it out of their own 
pockets, or try to find a hospital that will provide it to them on an outpatient basis 
(hospitals aren't subject to the therapy cap). 

Just one more reason to keep the heat on Congress to fix the Medicare law before 
the end of this month. Visit MOAA's Web site and send your legislators a message.

(For a copy of the Chapter Constitution and By-Laws)