President Barack Obama signed into law on April 1 a 12-month patch for the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, the White House said.
HR 4302, the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, averts a payment reduction scheduled for April 1 for physicians and other practitioners who treat Medicare patients. It replaces the cut with a 0.5% increase in payments through December of this year and a 0% update from January 1 to April 1, 2015.
This latest short-term fix came after Congress failed to pass permanent SGR repeal legislation. The fix passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on March 27 and in the Senate on March 31.
