MedPac Advisory Commission Votes on SGR Repeal Proposal that Cuts Specialist Physician Payments
This week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPac) voted 15-2 in favor of a proposal to Congress to eliminate Medicare's Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula. In order to pay for the repeal of SGR, the MedPac proposal recommends cutting specialty physician payments (including psychiatric physician payments) by 5.9% for three years followed by a seven year freeze. Meanwhile, primary care physician payments would freeze at current rates under the plan.
APA strongly supports efforts to repeal the SGR, but strongly opposes the Med PAC recommendation, since a 3-year, 18% reduction followed by a freeze for the next 7 years is not a viable solution and will only harm psychiatrists and other physicians. On Monday, October 3, APA signed onto a letter addressed to MedPac Commission members with the American Medical Association (AMA) and 41 other specialty care associations expressing grave concerns about the SGR proposal. The letter: 1) asked MedPac to think more broadly about proposals to repeal SGR; 2) questioned the Commission's treatment of primary care when primary care under Medicare represents only 8% of Medicare expenditures; 3) questioned the certainty of long-term physician revenue projections by the Commission, and; 4) warned that the proposal potentially jeopardizes both access to specialty care and collaborative care innovation.
While Congress is not statutory obligated to act legislatively on MedPac's proposal, it will undoubtedly take it under serious consideration. APA will continue working in concert with the AMA and other specialty associations to inform members of Congress about their position concerning MedPac's proposal.
To read the full letter please follow this link:
http://www.psych.org/MainMenu/AdvocacyGovernmentRelations/GovernmentRelations/Letter-to-MedPAC-Oppose.aspx?FT=.pdf
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Bipartisan Group of 113 Representatives Urge Permanent SGR Fix
This week a bloc of over a hundred members of Congress expressed their commitment to repeal the flawed sustainable growth rate formula (SGR) and wrote to their colleagues on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction urging them to meaningfully address SGR this Fall. The "Dear Colleague" letter was quarterbacked by Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA), and reminds members of Congress that the failure to take advantage of the supercommittee opportunity and permanently address SGR would result in the cost of a remedy doubling in five years to almost $600 billion. The APA Department of Government Relations would like to thank our grassroots network members who responded to our action alert by asking their Representatives to sign their name to the Schwartz letter.
To read the final letter and see who signed on, visit this link:
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/pa13_schwartz/pr_oct6_sgrletter.html
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Physician Groups and Hospital Associations Join to Oppose Potential Cuts to GME
This week 39 organizations from the physician and hospital provider community sent a letter to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the 'supercommittee') to urge opposition to cuts in graduate medical education (GME). The letter stresses that our communities are working to improve quality and efficiency of care, but Medicare GME cuts will jeopardize physician training and limit critical services. As you know, cutting GME and IME has been proposed by several deficit reduction workgroups and by the Obama administration in their recent document outlining options for deficit reduction.
The sign on letter was organized by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and can be viewed at the following link:
https://www.aamc.org/download/261268/data/providerjscdrgmeletter10-3-11.pdf |
