More than 600 organizations on March 5 joined the American Medical Association's (AMA) call on Congress to pass legislation to permanently repeal Medicare's sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula.
Two pieces of legislation, HR 4015 and S 2000, would repeal the SGR formula and establish a way to develop and implement new healthcare delivery and payment models to improve the quality and effectiveness of care, according to the AMA.
The current SGR patch expires on March 31, after which a 24% reduction in Medicare payments for all physician services would take effect.
According to the AMA, Congress has spent $153.7 billion to date on 16 previous legislative patches to the SGR formula, which is more than the Congressional Budget Office's estimate for the cost of permanently reforming the Medicare physician payment system.
State organizations representing internists, surgeons, cardiologists, oncologists, radiologists, orthopedists, and emergency physicians were among the 626 groups that signed the letter to House and Senate leaders. Contents of the communiqué were released at the AMA's National Advocacy Conference.
