Sequestration impacted Medicare Part B. Now Congress wants more Medicare Part B cuts. If you are on Medicare and have cancer, multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis the Medicare Part B cuts are impacting your quality of life. 
Seniors with illnesses such as these often rely on medicines covered by Medicare Part B – drugs that doctors buy and administer by injection or infusion into the bloodstream. Unfortunately, attempts to trim the federal budget may leave many doctors unable to treat Part B patients.
Most seniors think of Medicare Part D as their way to pay for prescription drugs, but a number of medications are paid for by Medicare Part B. If you have cancer, multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis your treatment is impacted.
Outpatient infusion therapy administered in a doctors office of clinic is commonly covered under Part B.
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Before these steep (sequestration) reductions, doctors who administered drugs to patients under Part B were reimbursed for the Average Sales Price of those medicines plus 6 percent, a convention known as “ASP+6%.”
As of April 1, however, sequestration slashed reimbursement rates to roughly ASP+4 percent – a cut amounting to billions of dollars.
To make matters worse, some in Washington have proposed reducing the reimbursement rate even further to ASP+3 percent
Congress wants to balance their budget on the backs of seniors by instituting drastic Medicare Part B cuts.
For the 9 percent of Floridians who live in rural areas, potential Part B reductions will be especially problematic. Not only are rural clinics the ones most likely to lose money because of higher costs, but seniors in those areas have to travel long distances if forced to find another doctor who will see them.
This is not just a Florida issue. Medicare Part B cuts impact seniors everywhere.
