From the American Academy of Ophthalmology

The U.S. House of Representatives today passed legislation (H.R. 4302) that would derail the impending 24 percent Medicare physician pay cut until April 1, 2015. The Academy is part of a broad coalition of medical associations opposing the bill. The coalition contends that H.R. 4302 jeopardizes bipartisan, bicameral legislation to permanently repeal the sustainable growth rate formula used to calculate Medicare physician pay and make other program reforms. H.R. 4302 uses cost-saving proposals included in the permanent SGR-repeal legislation. Use of these funding mechanisms for a short-term fix will make it harder to find offsets to pay for permanent repeal.

Specifically, H.R. 4302 requires the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to identify and revalue “potentially misvalued” codes starting in 2017, with a targeted $5 billion in savings. The Academy contends that the arbitrary savings target will compromise patients’ access to care. CMS has already moved $2.5 billion in payments from major specialty and surgical codes. Past payment changes included dramatic cuts for OCT, cataract and intravitreal injections. Regardless of past cuts, all codes will be considered for “potential misvaluation.”

“Lawmakers are unfairly asking surgeons and specialists, in particular, to fund their own temporary pay fix,” said Catherine G. Cohen, vice president for governmental affairs at the Academy.

H.R. 4302 would preserve the 0.5 percent payment update physicians received Jan. 1 through Dec. 31. Physicians would receive a 0 percent update Jan. 1-March 31, 2015. In addition, the bill would also delay implementation of ICD-10 for one year, to Oct. 1, 2015. The Academy believes lawmakers included the delay to gain physicians’ support. Presumably representatives incorrectly thought the delay would offset Congress’ failure to permanently fix the SGR, instead passing a temporary patch paid for in large part by cutting payments for “misvalued” codes.

Despite medicine’s aggressive campaign against the legislation, the House passed the bill by an unusually quick voice vote. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has scheduled a Monday vote on H.R. 4302.

What you can do:
Use the Academy’s online tools to contact your senators now. Urge them to vote no on H.R. 4302 and return to bipartisan efforts to enact permanent SGR repeal and Medicare payment-reform legislation.