It's official: The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, colloquially known as the supercommittee, announced on Monday that it will be unable to make any bipartisan agreement before the committee's deadline on November 23. The stage is now set for what could be massive cuts to government programs, including a 27% cut in Medicare payments.
"We are deeply disappointed that we have been unable to come to a bipartisan deficit reduction agreement," said co-chairs Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) in a statement.
The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction was created as part of the Budget Control Act of 2011, a compromise between the Obama administration and Congress to find ways to cut $1.2 trillion from the federal budget over the next decade. It consisted of six Democrats and six Republicans, with three members from each party in the Senate and three members in the House.
The conditions were that if the group could not identify specific programs to cut, then across-the-board reductions would occur in programs ranging from Medicare to military spending. The panel held its first meeting on September 13 and was charged to come up with a plan by November 23.
Reaching the goal set for the supercommittee was unlikely, according to Cynthia Moran, assistant executive director for government relations at the American College of Radiology (ACR).
"It's an unrealistic goal to get 12 people to resolve all the issues," she told AuntMinnie.com. "And as of now, there's no clarity [about how imaging will be affected]."
But this kind of failure can also turn around, Moran said.
"This is the kind of thing that, just when everyone's walking away from the dead body, it sits up and raises its hand," she said.
The ACR will continue to monitor Congress for action on several important issues affecting radiology, including legislation to fix the flawed sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula. The supercommittee's failure means there is nothing standing in the way of a 27% SGR cut to Medicare payments starting January 1, but Moran expects "sidecar" legislation that would postpone an SGR cut for six to 12 months.
The ACR will also work to derail any proposals for preauthorization of imaging exams, as well as any efforts to raise the equipment utilization rate from 75% to 90%.
