The AP reports that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D Mont) will be releasing his health care reform bill tomorrow without Republican support. The Politico reports that the Gang of Six will continue to meet. Baucus projects that a bill can clear his committee, be reconciled with the HELP Committee bill, and reach the Senate floor early next month. The Wall Street Journal reports that business support is building for Baucus framework while Modern Healthcare reports that Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D WV) has announced his opposition to it. The difference of opinion stems from the fact that the Baucus framework lacks a public plan option.

CMS announced today a proposal to pay a bundled fee for renal dialysis services provided to Medicare beneficiaries. Medicare coverage is offered to patients with end stage renal or kidney disease regardless of age. “Under the proposed rule, CMS would establish a base bundled payment rate of $198.64 for all of the services related to a dialysis session, including the services in the current composite rate as well as items, including oral drugs that are billed separately. The proposed base rate was derived from 2007 claims data for both composite rate and separately billable services and updated to reflect projected 2011 prices.” CMS is receiving comments on this proposal until November 16. CMS then intends to promulgate a final rule that would take effect on January 1, 2011. No doubt this statutorily mandated initiative will shift costs onto the private sector.

Medco has released its annual survey of plan sponsors “to help plan sponsors and their benefit advisors tackle the impact of current economic conditions on pharmacy benefit coverage.”

America’s Health Insurance Plans, the managed care trade association, announced that “Seniors in Medicare Advantage spent fewer days in a hospital, were subject to fewer hospital re-admissions, and were less likely to have “potentially avoidable” admissions, for common conditions ranging from uncontrolled diabetes to dehydration, according to a new [AHIP Research] analysis of publicly available AHRQ data.”