Senate Votes Down Bill to Fix Medicare Physician Payment Plan
October 19, 2009
On Wednesday, October 21, the Senate defeated S. 1776, a bill introduced by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) that would have permanently repealed the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula and stopped the 21 percent Medicare physician payment cut expected in January.
The bill was projected to cost $249 billion and would have protected doctors from future scheduled Medicare cuts.
The Senate Finance bill, “America’s Healthy Future Act”, has a provision that would provide a 0.5% increase for 2010 but does not address the cuts beyond that time.
The House’s Tri-Committee bill, “American Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009” (H.R. 3200), includes a provision to permanently fix the SGR. The House is expected to address the SGR separately from health system reform in the coming weeks.
The ACR issued a “Call to Action” to the membership urging members to contact their Senators to ask for support of S. 1776. In the coming weeks, the ACR will be sending thank you letters to the 47 Senators who voted for S. 1776 and encouraging membership to contact Congress and reiterate the importance of permanently fixing Medicare’s flawed payment system.
