Lawmakers Still Struggling To Find Permanent Fix For Medicare Physician Pay.

CQ HealthBeat (5/5, subscription required) reports, "A new Congressional Budget Office estimate that eliminating Medicare doctor payment cuts through 2020 would cost $276 billion raises afresh doubts among Capitol Hill observers that Congress will ever find offsets or raise revenues to permanently overhaul the physician payment formula." CQ adds, "The cost of such an overhaul might ultimately have to be piled onto the deficit without such 'pay-fors.'" Notably, "a new deficit control law allows doctor rates to be frozen through 2014 without payment offsets, but doctors may be in no mood to settle for a rate freeze even while it would avoid draconian cuts that would be triggered under the current formula."