After A Decade, Congress Moves To Fix Doctors’ Medicare Pay

But something unusual happened just before Congress left for its summer break. The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 51-0 for a bill that would overhaul the way Medicare pays doctors. The bill would, among other things, repeal something called the sustainable growth rate formula (SGR) and eventually replace it with a system that would pay doctors based on how healthy they keep their patients. The current formula has threatened to cut physician pay, often by double-digit rates, for each of the past dozen years. "Since its passage in 1997, SGR has bred uncertainty and frustration," said Energy and Commerce…

Read More »