Congress Passes Two-month "Doc Fix"
December 27, 2011
On December 23, Congress reached an agreement to avert the 27.4 percent cut to Medicare physician reimbursements that was scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1.
In addition to extending current Medicare physician reimbursement rates, the final legislation also included extensions for current Medicare reimbursement for DXA as well as the 2 percentage point Social Security tax cut and unemployment benefits until March 1, 2012.
As part of the agreement reached between the House and the Senate, both chambers will select members to serve on a conference committee to negotiate extending the SGR patch up to 2 years as was recently voted on by the House. The conference will meet after the new year to work on a longer-term Medicare reimbursement fix, as well as year-long solutions to extend the payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits.
The ACR will be working with members of the conference committee to identify a viable solution to repeal the SGR and move past the current physician payment system.
