PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text of measure as introduced: CR S7157-7158)
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Jul 23, 2008
Medicare Physician Payment Equity Act of 2008 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to recognize equality of physician work in all geographic areas under the Medicare physician fee schedule. Makes the geographic index 1.0 in all fee schedule areas for physician services furnished on or after January 2010.
Requires the Secretary, after calculating the practice expense geographic index, for purposes of payment for services furnished in 2009, to increase the practice expense geographic index to 1.0 for any locality for which such practice expense geographic index is less than 1.0.
Requires the practice expense geographic index, for services furnished on or after January 1, 2010, to reflect half the difference between the relative costs of employee wages and office rents in each of the different fee schedule areas and the national average of such wages and rents.
People & committees
Sen. Grassley, Chuck [R-IA] · R–IA
Legislative record
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text of measure as introduced: CR S7157-7158)
Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S7156-7157)
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
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Source last updated: Aug 14, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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