President Barack Obama signed HR 3630 at the end of December, which approved a two-month extension of the payroll tax breaks and the current Medicare payment rates for physicians. However, the bill expires March 1, 2012, and if Congress does not find a new solution, physicians will face a 27.4 percent cut to their Medicare payments.
The hospital groups urged the House and Senate to find a permanent solution to the SGR, but not at the expense of hospitals. Currently, the proposed bill in Congress would cut hospital payments by more than $20 billion. Hospital outpatient payments would be hit especially hard, as payments for evaluation and management services would be reduced by $6.8 billion.
Hospitals will already have to absorb the 2 percent sequestration cuts to Medicare payments from the Budget Control Act of 2011, the hospital groups argued. Instead, they suggested Congress should fund a permanent solution to the SGR through other means, such as from savings of the Overseas Contingency Operations, as long as “those funds cover the entire cost of the SGR fix,” according to the letter.
This week, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that a full fix of the SGR would cost $316 billion.
Related Articles on the Sustainable Growth Rate:
More Than 100 Medical Groups Urge Congress to Fix SGR With War Savings
AAMC Calls on Lawmakers to Reject Cuts to E&M services
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