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.

Your Medicare payments will fall by 27.4% in 2012, under a conversion factor of $24.6712, which is slightly less than the 29.5% cut projected by CMS earlier under the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula. The difference is due to Medicare costs growing slightly slower than expected, the agency says. Of course, this 27.4% cut isn’t the final word, because Congress has always stepped in at the last minute to avert SGR cuts.

We're deep into the pages of the proposed 2012 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and still haven't seen light at the end of the tunnel, but one thing is clear already: weighing in at 621 pages, this is one slim tome compared to the 2011 proposed fee schedule. The 2011 edition was 1,250 pages, which means this year's version is less than half the length, or 49.6% if you want to be precise. TIP: Read our initial fee schedule findings here, if you haven't already. The biggest reason for the big difference in size has to be the health reform law, which required CMS to start turning legislation into actual rulemaking.

CMS is putting the finishing touches on its proposed 2012 Physician Fee Schedule and expects to release it "very shortly," in the words of Stewart Streimer, director of the agency's Provider Billing Group. This vague hint was one of the first announcements Streimer made during today's physician open door call.