Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
The House Ways and Means Committee is postponing a markup of a prospective "doc fix" and other health bills because of scheduling conflicts and lingering disagreements over legislative language, sources told Axios.
Driving the news: The delay means adjustments to the Medicare physician payment system, as well as unspecified surprise billing and rural health legislation, are likely on hold until after the election.
What they're saying: Rep. Greg Murphy confirmed Wednesday that the markup envisioned for this month had been canceled.
- "We were going to have a health care markup," Murphy said. "There were a couple of bills in there that everybody wasn't quite on board with … so we're not going to do a markup next week."
- "I think we're going to have a policy hour, kind of hash out some of the things, maybe take a bill out, maybe try to reform the bill and then move forward," he said. "The chairman and I, I spoke with him about that, and I think that's a better way to proceed."
- A Ways and Means spokesperson declined to comment.
Between the lines: A number of unresolved issues about the markup made it difficult to pull off next week, sources said.
- The problems don't surround one issue, but it wasn't worth putting out a notice for a markup and risk getting blowback from affected industries while dealing with member disagreements, the sources said.
What's next: The doc fix still is expected to figure prominently in a lame duck session, with physicians facing a prospective 2.8% cut in Medicare pay next year.
