The U.S. House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee has unanimously passed legislation to repeal and replace the Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR), according to the American College of Radiology.
HR 2810, the Medicare Patient Access and Quality Improvement Act of 2013, also includes provisions that address the 25% professional component multiple procedure payment reduction (MPPR) included in the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare physician fee schedule, as well as the expansion of Web-based clinical decision-support tools.
The House bill includes language mandating CMS to disclose specific data that were used in the 2012 MPFS final rule, when the 25% reimbursement cut was initially proposed. CMS has never disclosed a line-by-line data analysis in justification of this cut, the ACR said. Although these provisions do not directly address the MPPR cut, if the legislation is enacted, inclusion of this language would ensure that Congress is overseeing CMS with respect to this policy, the group believes.
The legislation does not outline how Congress plans to cover the cost of repealing the SGR, leaving these decisions to both the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees, the ACR said.
