House passes H.R. 3961—legislation to permanently repeal the SGR

By a vote of 243-183, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3961, a bill that repeals the current Medicare physician payment formula, known as the sustainable growth rate (SGR), and replaces it with a new framework. The AMCNO had contacted all Northern Ohio representatives urging their support of this legislation. The bill would block a 21 percent physician- payment cut required by a 1997 formula originally designed to control costs. It restructures the formula on a long-term basis beginning in 2011, taking into account spending since 2009 or, beginning in 2014, spending for the previous five years. This legislation would replace the SGR with a new formula. Additional technical changes will avoid the accumulation or compounding of debt that occurred with the SGR formula. The issue now goes to the Senate. The AMCNO will continue to monitor this issue.

To view Information on Medicare's Payments to Physicians and the Budgetary Effects of H.R. 3961, the Medicare Physicians Payment Reform Act of 2009 as developed by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) go to http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=10732