The AMA is again pushing for federal lawmakers to pass a bill that eliminates the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula from calculating Medicare payments for physicians. A vote on the "doc fix" bill HR 3691 might happen in the House this week, according to published reports.
The bill may pass the House, but the measure will likely fail in the Senate. A similar SGR bill was soundly rejected about a month ago. The Senate vote was not a vote against doctors, says AMA past president Nancy Nielsen, MD. Senators were concerned about adding roughly $300 billion to the deficit over the next decade. "We're all concerned with the deficit," she said during a conference call this morning.
For the past seven years or so, lawmakers, for the most part, have been not-so-concerned about the deficit. They delayed cuts under the SGR and used billions of dollars in deficit spending to pay for temporary pay fixes or patches. The cuts have continued to grow and now physicians face a 21.2% decrease in reimbursements starting Jan. 1. The SGR problem should have been dealt with in overall health reform. But politicians removed provisions dealing with the SGR from final reforms because it's a budget killer.
The federal deficit is already over a trillion dollars, so serious SGR reform will again be delayed for another year as long as legislation lacks pay-for provisions (cuts or taxes). If HR 3691 passes the House, it's hard to believe the Senate will lose its conscience and add $300 billion to future deficits. Another temporary fix - that raises the deficit by tens of billions and not hundreds of billions - is more likely at this point.