To: ACS Leaders…..
It is December 9th …. 27.4% cut is scheduled to go into effect in 22 days. Here is where we stand….
The House Republicans introduced a large bill today that includes a number of things. One section of the bill deals with Medicare physician payment. The bill would stop the cut for 2 years and provide a 1% positive update (which would likely disappear in 2013 because of the failure of the Super Committee – sequestration). The bill includes a number of provisions un-related to Medicare. There are a number of “pay fors” in the bill including some substantial cuts to hospitals (the hospital groups are very upset). While essentially freezing physician payments for two years, the bill would leave a 37% cut in physician payments in 2014 and would increase the debt on this program from $300 billion to close to $370 billion. We met with House Republican leadership staff this morning and they told us that the plan is to have the House vote on this bill early next week (possibly Tues?).
The concept of fully eliminating the current SGR debt ($300 billion) by using unspent war funds is still alive in the Senate. Senators Harry Reid (D-NV), John Kyl (R-AZ) , Max Baucus (D-MT) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) continue to lead this effort.
Congress is scheduled to leave for the year next Friday. We shall see if that happens……
As always, let me know if you have any questions.
Christian
Christian Shalgian
Director
Dvision of Advocacy and Health Policy
American College of Surgeons
20 F St, NW Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20001
Email: cshalgian@facs.org
Phone: 202-672-1504
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