This Thursday, The Senate Finance Committee will vote on a plan to eliminate an annual tradition. No, they aren’t planning to cancel Christmas. They are looking to permanently repeal the sustainable growth rate (SGR) physician payment formula, which would also eliminate an annual vote to delay the physician pay cuts associated with the formula. 
Implemented as part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, the SGR formula is a mechanism to ensure that increases in Medicare expenses do not exceed the gross domestic product growth rate. Each year, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission issues a report on the previous year’s expenses and recommends an adjustment to the physician pay rate. The recommendation is typically a reduction in physician payments, to which Congress responds with a bill to suspend the SGR from going into effect for the upcoming year. Members of Congress have made permanently repealing the SGR formula a major focus for this session. “Fixing the flawed Medicare payment formula is some of the most important work facing this Congress,” Rep. Mike Burgess, MD (R-Texas), vice chair of the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, said in a statement. The House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved its version of the repeal bill in late July, which would provide a 0.5% reimbursement increase for each year between 2014 and 2018. The Congressional Budget Office originally estimated the bill would cost $175 billion; however, the CBO lowered its estimate to $153.2 billion last week. The lower cost estimate is due to the fact that overall Medicare spending has slowed. This is good news for lawmakers, who think the reduced price tag will accelerate the pace of passing the repeal of the formula. The Senate Finance Committee will finalize its version of the repeal Thursday, which freezes payment levels through 2023 and creates a performance-based incentive program in 2017. levitra online
Implemented as part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, the SGR formula is a mechanism to ensure that increases in Medicare expenses do not exceed the gross domestic product growth rate. Each year, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission issues a report on the previous year’s expenses and recommends an adjustment to the physician pay rate. The recommendation is typically a reduction in physician payments, to which Congress responds with a bill to suspend the SGR from going into effect for the upcoming year. Members of Congress have made permanently repealing the SGR formula a major focus for this session. “Fixing the flawed Medicare payment formula is some of the most important work facing this Congress,” Rep. Mike Burgess, MD (R-Texas), vice chair of the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, said in a statement. The House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved its version of the repeal bill in late July, which would provide a 0.5% reimbursement increase for each year between 2014 and 2018. The Congressional Budget Office originally estimated the bill would cost $175 billion; however, the CBO lowered its estimate to $153.2 billion last week. The lower cost estimate is due to the fact that overall Medicare spending has slowed. This is good news for lawmakers, who think the reduced price tag will accelerate the pace of passing the repeal of the formula. The Senate Finance Committee will finalize its version of the repeal Thursday, which freezes payment levels through 2023 and creates a performance-based incentive program in 2017. levitra online
