Inspired by a joint effort between U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the House and Senate on March 19 submitted identical bills that would repeal the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, according to the Associated Press.
The bills' introduction comes as the most recent fix's expiration date approaches. Last April, President Barack Obama signed HR 4302, the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, into law. It expires on March 31.
The new legislation would avoid a 21.2% cut to physicians' Medicare payments set to start April 1, eradicate the existing fee formula, and increase physician pay annually by 0.5% through 2019, at a cost of approximately $200 billion over 10 years, the AP said. Funds for the fix would come from $140 billion in bigger federal deficits, while the rest would be divided between higher premiums for Medicare beneficiaries earning more than $133,000 per year and cuts to some providers such as nursing homes.
Kaiser Health News reported that the House is expected to add an amendment to its version that would ensure two years of funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a federal/state program that provides insurance for low-income children whose families earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid. Currently, CHIP's funding ends on October 1.
Repeal, already
Professional medical societies have been urging Congress to fix the SGR for years. On March 16, more than 750 organizations, including the American College of Radiology (ACR), sent a letter to Boehner urging repeal of the SGR formula before the current patch expires.
In a statement released soon after the bills were introduced, the American College of Physicians (ACP) congratulated Boehner and Pelosi on their leadership in spearheading SGR repeal.
"We are pleased that the bill is fiscally responsible, by putting an end to the practice of Congress passing seemingly endless SGR 'patches' that each time has cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars -- 17 patches over the past 11 years that have neither achieved SGR repeal nor advanced real reform in physician payments," said ACP President Dr. David Fleming.
