U.S. deficit panel weighs Medicare doctor payments

(Reuters) – The congressional “super committee” charged with reducing U.S. budget deficits is considering tackling a measure that could make their job even harder by preventing a steep pay cut for Medicare doctors.

The bipartisan panel that has been tasked with finding at least $1.2 trillion in budget savings over 10 years has a “strong interest” in taking up the doctor payment issue, sources familiar with panel discussions said on Wednesday.

But doing so would cost hundreds of billions of dollars and thus complicate deficit-reduction work.

The sources stressed that the panel has not yet decided whether to include a so-called “doc fix” in its package of deficit reduction recommendations, which is due by November 23rd.

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