Senate Bill would Block Medicare Pay Cuts to Doctors
BY LAUREN UZDIENSKI, OCTOBER 19, 2009
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) introduced a bill last week that would block a 21% cut to physicians' Medicare pay. For the past several years, Congress has passed a one-year patch on scheduled pay cuts; the Stabenow bill would be a permanent fix, scrapping the sustainable growth rate formula. SGR has been in place since the 1990s and was intended to prevent Medicare payment rates from outpacing the growth rate for the overall economy.
The bill would cost the government $245 billion over ten years, throwing a wrench in efforts to contain the cost of healthcare reform. According to a report in the Washington Post, Republican senators acknowledge that the SGR is flawed, but they're also looking for budget offsets for the Stabenow bill and need to be convinced that healthcare reform measures won't add to the deficit. Currently, Sen. Max Baucus' reform bill is expected to cost around $860 billion and includes the typical one-year patch on the payment cuts.
The Washington Post adds that the Stabenow bill would help to win over the American Medical Association, physicians' primary lobby, which has not yet announced its support for the broader healthcare reform legislation. The AMA is said to be launching a major advertising campaign to drum up support for the Stabenow bill, which, according to Washington blog The Hill, will proceed directly to a floor debate without proposed budget offsets or a committee recommendation.
