Summaries of two recent developments related to Medicare appear below.

• AARP: AARP on Wednesday asked members to call their senators in support of legislation that would allow the HHS secretary to negotiate prices directly with pharmaceutical companies under the Medicare prescription drug benefit, CQ HealthBeat reports. According to AARP, members have made more than 60,000 calls and sent more than 42,000 e-mails to senators in support of the legislation. Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has said that he would introduce such legislation "as soon as possible after senators return" from recess, according to Baucus spokesperson Carol Guthrie (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 4/3). Karen Sloan, national coordinator for health at AARP, said that the committee likely will consider such legislation next week, with a vote by the full Senate possible on April 16 (Andersen, Lincoln Journal Star, 4/4). Baucus has not said whether the legislation would require the HHS secretary to negotiate prices, a provision included in a bill (HR 4) passed by the House earlier this year. "It's unclear whether Baucus has the votes to mark up legislation granting negotiating authority," but "he might be able to build some momentum for the measure with the help of AARP and other allies," CQ HealthBeat reports (CQ HealthBeat, 4/3).
  
  
• CMS: CMS on Tuesday announced the release of 74 measures that the agency will use to determine the quality of physician care, CQ HealthBeat reports. Under the "Physician Quality Reporting Initiative," physicians who on July 1 begin to submit data to Medicare on the quality measures will receive a 1.5% increase in reimbursements for services provided between July 1 and Dec. 31. CMS officials said that the agency plans "an extensive outreach and education plan" to inform physicians about the program, which seeks to help physicians "implement processes to efficiently capture" the data (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 4/3).