Congress has passed a temporary patch for the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) issue to prevent a 21% cut in Medicare physician reimbursement, however, the current patch expires May 31, 2010 so the work on this issue must continue.
The House Ways and Means Committee is continuing its work on a revised version of the tax extenders bill passed by the House and Senate H.R. 4213, which included a SGR patch until September 30, 2010. The Chairman of the Committee, Sander Levin (D-MI) has stated his intent to move this legislation prior to Memorial Day. The challenge, however, is finding an acceptable pay-for to off-set the cost of extending the tax cuts included in the bill even though it is yet again only another temporary fix. Further, it is concerning to think we could have to address this issue again just before the November elections. I am hoping we see the length of the temporary fix extended at least though the elections or through 2011. Physician groups such as the AMA are pushing for a permanent fix but given the cost of this issue a longer-term temporary fix may be a better option at this point.
On a related issue, Senate Democrats released their 2011 budget proposal last week, which continues to exempt the a fix of the Medicare Physician payment system (SGR) from Statutory-Pay-As-You-Go Act. The language specifically exempts the cost of a 5 year zero percent update from having to be paid for. This does not mean that the Congress must pass a 5 year zero percent freeze as they could do a shorter extension with a higher update just so long as it did not exceed the cost estimated by CBO for a 5 year zero percent update.
Will this issue get addressed in a more sustainable way? We all understand the current budget pressures but to put physicians and Medicare beneficiaries in the middle of these issues is not appropriate.
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