House Passes Year-Long SGR Patch, Includes California GPCI Fix March 27, 2014 Advocacy, Medicare, News SGR patch, HR 4302, Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, SGR, sustainable growth rate 0 This morning the U.S. House of Representatives passed “Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014” (HR 4302) to delay for 12 months a scheduled Medicare 24% sustainable growth rate (SGR) cut by voice vote. Details of SGR Patch The compromise measure contains a slew of additional health care provisions and benefits for physicians, hospitals, drug makers and other providers, including: Grant Medicare physicians a 0.5% fee increase through December 31, 2014, and then a 0% update until April 1, 2015 California Medicare locality update, known as the California geographic practice cost index (GPCI) fix. The GPCI fix holds rural physicians harmless from cuts permanently. Delay the deadline to implement the new ICD-10 diagnostic and procedure code sets by one year, to October 1, 2015 Delay implementation of the new inpatient payment rule for hospitals, known as the two-midnight rule, by 6 months, to March Organized Medicine Criticizes SGR Patch, Urges for Permanent Payment Reform Unable to come to an agreement on how to fund a permanent repeal of the badly broken formula, despite a bill with bipartisan, bicameral support, Congress appears poised to kick the can down the road for the 17th time in just 10 years. The California Medical Association (CMA) circulated a letter urging the House to take the time to fund the permanent repeal and pass it rather than adopting another year-long patch. The letter supported the “perseverance of the House and Senate Committees to achieve a bipartisan, bicameral agreement to repeal the flawed Medicare SGR and institute a reasonable new payment system.” Over 90 national, stat, and specialty physician organizations called for a no vote on this legislation in the House of Representatives. The one-year patch is expected to cost roughly $20 billion. A significant chunk of that money will be generated through a budget gimmick, extending Medicare sequester cuts beyond the 10-year window used for budget scoring purposes. It is also funded with other physician cuts from misvalued codes and imaging criteria. This latest patch is part of a decade long string of patches that have cost U.S. taxpayers $150 billion, close to the cost of a permanent fix. Moreover, many of the physician funding sources in the current patch legislation could be more cost-effectively applied in a permanent reform bill. Click here to see the bill passed by the House. Comments are closed.
