Senate passes legislation to permanently replace SGR

The U.S. Senate last night voted 92-8 on final passage of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (H.R. 2), legislation to permanently replace the flawed Medicare physician sustainable growth rate formula. The bill now goes to the president’s desk for signature. In a statement, AHA President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock said, “Fixing the way physicians are reimbursed for the care they provide patients means that America’s seniors can continue to have access to the necessary care they need. We have long supported permanently replacing the flawed Medicare sustainable growth rate for physician payment. We commend Congress for passing legislation that strikes a careful balance in the way it funds the SGR repeal and embraces a number of structural reforms to the Medicare program. It fixes the physician payment problem and includes policy changes that move their payments to reflect the transformation happening in health care that hospitals have already embraced.” He noted that the AHA will continue to seek action on issues not included in the final bill, such as broad-based Recovery Audit Contractor reform, sociodemographic adjustment to the readmissions penalty program, and corrections to regulatory issues like the critical access hospital 96-hour rule and direct supervision for outpatient therapeutic services.