As the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission prepares to meet Thursday to vote on its draft recommendations regarding the Medicare physician fee schedule sustainable growth rate, the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association have urged MedPAC to consider their additional comments regarding full repeal of the SGR.
In September, MedPAC discussed a recommendation to repeal the SGR and replace it with a 10-year path of legislated fee schedule updates. Payments for primary care physicians would be frozen while payments for specialists would be cut by 5.9 percent for three straight years and then frozen. Overall, the recommendation would cost $200 billion to $300 billion over 10 years, and MedPAC said in order to offset this cost, other healthcare providers would have to endure payment reductions. The AHA and AMA both support full repeal of the SGR, but both recommended different ways to offset the consequential cuts.
According to AHA's letter to MedPAC, offsetting the cost of the SGR repeal with Medicare cuts to hospitals and other providers is an approach equivalent to "robbing Peter to pay Paul." Making cuts to hospitals, which are seeing negative Medicare margins currently, would only further endanger beneficiary access to those providers, the letter said. Instead, the AHA supports raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 and supports incentives for physicians to participate in accountable care organizations, bundled payments and other coordinated systems of care, which could lead to long-term savings.
The AMA, along with 42 other medical organizations, suggested that MedPAC examine a broader set of existing proposals to pay for the SGR repeal instead of offering a new package that encumbers providers and beneficiaries more, according to the letter. Additionally, the groups stated the payment freezes to primary care physicians and specialists would be problematic as physicians have already faced 10 years of "nearly frozen rates."
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In September, MedPAC discussed a recommendation to repeal the SGR and replace it with a 10-year path of legislated fee schedule updates. Payments for primary care physicians would be frozen while payments for specialists would be cut by 5.9 percent for three straight years and then frozen. Overall, the recommendation would cost $200 billion to $300 billion over 10 years, and MedPAC said in order to offset this cost, other healthcare providers would have to endure payment reductions. The AHA and AMA both support full repeal of the SGR, but both recommended different ways to offset the consequential cuts.
According to AHA's letter to MedPAC, offsetting the cost of the SGR repeal with Medicare cuts to hospitals and other providers is an approach equivalent to "robbing Peter to pay Paul." Making cuts to hospitals, which are seeing negative Medicare margins currently, would only further endanger beneficiary access to those providers, the letter said. Instead, the AHA supports raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 and supports incentives for physicians to participate in accountable care organizations, bundled payments and other coordinated systems of care, which could lead to long-term savings.
The AMA, along with 42 other medical organizations, suggested that MedPAC examine a broader set of existing proposals to pay for the SGR repeal instead of offering a new package that encumbers providers and beneficiaries more, according to the letter. Additionally, the groups stated the payment freezes to primary care physicians and specialists would be problematic as physicians have already faced 10 years of "nearly frozen rates."
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