Hospital Group Hits Senate GOP Medicare Plan
WASHINGTON — Hospitals face real cuts, not just a slower rate of growth, if Congress adopts the Senate version of Medicare reforms, the American Hospital Assn. said Tuesday.
The lobbying group appealed to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and the rest of the Senate to back off plans to exact $86 billion of their seven-year, $270-billion Medicare savings from hospitals.
The hospitals, which drew a rebuke from House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) for running ads last spring decrying the size of the GOP Medicare cutbacks, said they will launch new newspaper ads urging the Senate to trim the reductions.
AHA President Richard Davidson said the plan “will seriously jeopardize†hospitals’ ability to care for elderly and non-elderly patients alike.
Meanwhile, the American College of Physicians, which represents 85,000 internists, joined the American Nurses Assn. and the National Assn. of Public Hospitals in attacking the GOP plan.
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