In one week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers dubbed the “Super Committee” must release a plan that cuts federal spending by $1.2 trillion over the next decade. If they don’t come up with something, or if Congress fails to approve the plan they release, you can expect automatic across-the-board federal cuts, including a 2% cut to your Medicare physician pay starting in 2013.
This amount would be on top of the 27.4% pay cut set to hit Jan. 1, 2012, under the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, as stated in the 2012 Physician Fee Schedule final rule.
Even if the Super Committee releases a plan that Congress approves, it would still contain $1.2 trillion in federal spending cuts, and that money has to come from somewhere – your physician payments could be part of the cuts anyway.
Bottom line: It’s not looking good. Just 10 days before the deadline, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), a member of the Super Committee, warned Congress to start looking for a way to configure the $1.2 trillion across-the-board cuts that would be triggered in the event his Committee fails to agree on a plan. Congress needs to reconfigure the mandatory cuts in a way that wouldn’t seriously harm the military, Toomey said on Fox News Sunday Nov. 13.