Obama to hold reception for lawmakers saluting overhaul of Medicare payment system

President Barack Obama has invited Democratic and Republican lawmakers to the White House for a reception thanking them for their work on legislation permanently changing how Medicare pays doctors.

The event will be held Tuesday in the Rose Garden. Obama signed the legislation on Friday, marking a rare bipartisan achievement and ending years of last-minute fixes. Obama said then that he wanted to act quickly without ceremony to allow for the new payments. He said he would have lawmakers to the White House this week.

The bill overhauls a 1997 law that aimed to slow Medicare's growth by limiting reimbursements to doctors. Instead, doctors threatened to leave the Medicare program, and that forced Congress repeatedly to block those reductions.