The House of Representatives decided not to make fixing the crippling Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) mechanism part of overall health reform. Instead, House lawmakers have created a separate bill to fix the SGR.
Oy.
The SGR bill eliminates the 21.5% cut to Medicare rates set for 2010 and will install a new payment system with separate conversion factors for different service categories. E/M services would have its own category. The new payment system would be installed by 2011.
I'm a bit skeptical over the chances of this bill ever becoming law. First, there are no offsets, no new way to pay for inevitable increased spending. Second, we just witnessed the Senate reject a Medicare doc fix bill -- so if this passes the House, the chances that it passes the Senate seem pretty slim.
As we reported in the current Part B News newsletter, a temporary fix -- likely to occur on New Year's Eve, right? -- appears to be the more realistic option.