From the American Academy of Ophthalmology

Efforts to Permanently Repeal the SGR Take Partisan Turn
Later this week, the House of Representatives will vote on the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act (H.R. 4015). The bill would finally replace the flawed sustainable growth rate formula used to determine Medicare physician payments. Time is running out for lawmakers to avert a looming 24 percent cut to physician Medicare payments. The Academy and physician community have pressed Congress to act on H.R. 4015 before the March 31 deadline when the cut takes effect. Now we need your help.

Bipartisan support for the bill has grown but may break down as legislators seek a way to pay for the proposed permanent repeal. This could jeopardize the opportunity to finally repeal the SGR formula once and for all. Key Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate committees that control Medicare have finally agreed on a policy that would transition physicians to a new payment system. However, they haven’t found a way to cover the $138 billion, 11-year cost. They had hoped to come up with a bipartisan way to pay for the fix by the end of the month. But they have not yet done so — and no serious discussions to find bipartisan offsets are underway. Consequently, House Republican leaders have decided to pay for Medicare physician-reform by repealing the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate.

The funding decision puts House Democrats in an awkward position. Either they will have to vote against repealing a Medicare payment formula that has long vexed doctors or against a key piece of the ACA. The Senate is unlikely to pass such a solution. If the repeal bill fails, Congress will have to pass another short-term SGR fix. Finding a permanent SGR pay-for could get kicked into the lame duck Congress at the end of the year.

The Academy has supported the progress made towards permanent repeal and replacement of the Medicare SGR formula. However, we are concerned that partisan politics will upend the bipartisan efforts that have gotten us this far. The Academy has joined the American College of Surgeons and other surgical groups to call upon House and Senate leaders to continue working to address pay-fors in the “same spirit of bicameral bipartisanship.” We are reminding leaders that they have fewer than 30 days before the next scheduled SGR cut. We need “meaningful efforts to bring us closer to permanently repealing and reforming the SGR.”

Use the Academy’s online tools to urge House and Senate leaders to bring H.R. 4015/S. 2000 to a vote under a bipartisan agreement before the current SGR patch expires on March 31.

For more information, contact the Academy’s Government Affairs office at 202.737.6662.