HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: The Senate on Thursday passed a bill to postpone a 23% cut in Medicare payments to doctors, scheduled to take effect on Dec. 1. The bill would block the cut until Jan. 1. The one-month reprieve goes now to the House, which is expected to approve it. The action followed a bipartisan agreement reached by the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, and the senior Republican on the panel, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa. With the agreement, the senators said in a joint statement, “seniors and military families can be confident they will be able to see a doctor and get the medicines they need.’’