With Congress’ deadline to extend the two-month fee fix only 23 days away, some members are pushing for a permanent repeal of the volatile sustainable growth rate (SGR), the American Hospital Association reports in its Feb. 1 newsletter.
Remember: You were shielded from a 27.4% pay cut after Congress passed a bill Dec. 22 to keep the SGR cut at bay and extend payroll tax breaks and unemployment benefits through February (PBN 1/2/12).
House of Representative members Joseph Crowley, D-NY, and Dan Benishek, M.D., R-MI, are petitioning support to use the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funds, or money set aside to fuel the “global war on terror,” to offset the cost of repealing CMS’ SGR formula for provider payments.
“As you develop the conference report on the Middle Class Tax Reform and Job Creation Act, we urge you to include a permanent repeal of the sustainable growth rate formula, and to offset the full cost of this repeal with unused Overseas Contingency Operations funds,” the Congressmen state in their letter to conferees on the issue. “This is an ideal opportunity to address the flawed physician payment formula in a fiscally responsible way and bring relief to Medicare beneficiaries and physicians across the nation.”
Congress is currently in talks to extend the payroll tax breaks bill including the SGR fix.