The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee held a hearing yesterday to consider how various Medicare, Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program and human services payment provisions should continue in the event of a permanent Medicare sustainable growth rate repeal.
The provisions, known as extenders, are typically considered part of the short-term legislative patches Congress has enacted every year since 2003 to delay steep pay cuts for physicians under the SGR. Among the extenders typically included in the temporary patches are the Medicare Inpatient Hospital Payment Adjustment for Low-Volume Hospitals, the
Although federal lawmakers recently passed another short-term SGR patch as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, the House and Senate have been working to craft a measure to permanently repeal and replace the flawed physician payment formula, eliminating the need for temporary legislative fixes. Last month, the Senate Finance and
The subcommittee heard testimony on how the extenders improve Americans' health and reduce costs from members of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, Health Resources and Services Administration and the Administration for Children and Families.
The American Hospital Association has also asked Congress to maintain the extender provisions.
"Over the years, Congress has enacted several provisions to address the special challenges rural
hospitals encounter in delivering healthcare services to the communities they are committed to
serving," the AHA wrote in a statement submitted to the subcommittee. "The AHA urges the Committee to recognize that the circumstances that necessitated these provisions continue to exist; therefore, it is appropriate that they be extended."
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