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Short-term doctor fix leaves physicians dissatisfied
02.16.2012
It looks as though lawmakers in Washington will soon pass legislation to avoid a major payment cut to doctors treating Medicare patients, thus ensuring that physicians will be adequately compensated. However, experts say the problems that led to the need for last-minute legislative wrangling persist and more should have been done to address these issues.Physicians were facing the threat of seeing their Medicare reimbursement rates cut by 27.4 percent if Congress failed to act. The passage of the proposed legislation will avert this cut. However, rules governing physician compensation that led to the potential rate reduction are still on the books.
The problem goes back to 1997 and the passage of the sustainable growth rate rule. This legislation set a formula for increasing the rate at which physicians are reimbursed for their services that was tied to inflation.
However, since initial adoption of the rule, physician usage by Medicare patients has grown much faster than expected, which means that doctors would face drastic reimbursement cuts unless Congress passes short-term fixes, which is what they are doing in this situation.
This solution will only guarantee that doctors will avoid drastic cuts for another 10 months, which is far from an adequate solution, according to representatives of the Medical Group Management Association, who think that the sustainable growth rate formula should be scrapped entirely.
"We are deeply disappointed that Congress has missed a unique opportunity to repeal the SGR once and for all and instead has chosen political expediency over patients," said Susan Turney, MGMA president and CEO. "Physician practices now face a mounting 35 percent payment threat from Medicare in 2013 and Congress has dug itself a $400 billion hole."
Without repealing the sustainable growth rate formula, doctors will likely face more drama and threats of cuts again in 10 months.
Categories: Physician Recruitment
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