Sustainable Growth Rate and Medicare

[Pointless]

I just wanted to point out what many of us already know, that our incredibly partisan and ineffective Congress is about to allow the SGR payment adjustment to go into effect on January 1st, resulting in a 27.5% reduction in Medicare physician payment. This, on top of a 2% reduction set to begin with the new year as the ACA begins to rear its ugly head. President Obama spoke today regarding the "fiscal cliff" and indicated that he would advocate for a mini-patch that would essentially score him the political points of reducing the tax burden for individuals making less than 250k and extending unemployment benefits, while making no mention of fixing the ridiculously broken SGR formula, even if only by punting it down the road.

I urge everyone to support the AMA's attempt at lobbying our state congressional members by sending an automated email to your senators and congressmen via this site:

http://capwiz.com/ama/issues/alert/?alertid=61897846

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[Gfunk6]

Done. I'd say it's pretty likely that a last minute "patch" will get passed, thereby kicking the can down the road until the next "crisis."

 

[medgator]

Done. I'd say it's pretty likely that a last minute "patch" will get passed, thereby kicking the can down the road until the next "crisis."

Yup. It will be amusing(or should I say sad) when the sgr cut to be averted is 50%+ in a decade

 

[OTN]

The higher that proposed cut gets, the less likely it will ever be enacted.

 

[RadOncDoc21]

The higher that proposed cut gets, the less likely it will ever be enacted.

I guess that's why settling for a 37.5% cut would be considered a "victory" based on ASTRO standards.

 

[Sheldor]

It's unfortunate because the "fiscal cliff" debate has taken the center stage with the media, so the SGR debate has taken a back seat. I hope they fix it before the 1st, other wise there may be another cluster like the last time they waited until mid January.

 

[Pointless]

My fear is not that they will ultimately enact the full SGR reduction, but that, when they do finally impose a "doc-fix", they will split the difference or start with a 10-15% across-the-board reduction, with little to no increase for the next 10 years. As it is, they are projecting an ungodly amount of money needed just in order to maintain current rates for the next decade. This, along with the inevitable transition to bundled payments, may drastically change the financial outlook of medicine.

 

[medgator]

My fear is not that they will ultimately enact the full SGR reduction, but that, when they do finally impose a "doc-fix", they will split the difference or start with a 10-15% across-the-board reduction, with little to no increase for the next 10 years. As it is, they are projecting an ungodly amount of money needed just in order to maintain current rates for the next decade. This, along with the inevitable transition to bundled payments, may drastically change the financial outlook of medicine.

Just by the sheer aging of our population, more and more people hit the medicare rolls every year. They could freeze our reimbursements today and still have increasing outlays going forward because of that.

Unfortunately, the writing is on the wall