Payroll tax cut & unemployment extension deal includes cuts in Medicare/Medicaid hospital payments!

[ProSense]

1. This

To help offset the cost of paying doctors under Medicare, the agreement will reduce payments to hospitals. The legislation cuts Medicaid payments to hospitals that serve disproportionate numbers of low-income patients. And it cuts Medicare payments to hospitals for bad debts that result when beneficiaries fail to pay deductibles and co-payments.

...deal hasn't been finalized, and the Doc Fix is not the payroll tax cut, which has no offset, or unemployment benefits, which is still being worked out.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002315429