The American Medical Association (AMA) is joining with specialty medical societies to urge Congress to repeal the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula.
In a letter sent September 20, the AMA emphasized to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the congressional deficit reduction "supercommittee") that it is "critically important ... to include a full repeal of the fatally flawed Medicare sustainable growth rate formula in its final legislation."
The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction was created as part of the compromise between the Obama administration and Congress to find ways to cut $1.2 trillion from the federal budget over the next decade. If the supercommittee is unable to identify specific programs to cut by December 23, then across-the-board reductions will occur in programs ranging from Medicare to military spending.
"With a nearly 30% cut looming for physician payments, the fiscally responsible action for the congressional deficit committee is to repeal the Medicare physician payment formula now," said Dr. Peter Carmel, AMA president, in a statement.
