The US House of Representatives is poised to vote on HR 3961, a bill that would repeal the current Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR), the formula that threatens to cut Medicare payments to physicians each year.

HR 3961 would repeal the SGR, and with it more than $250 billion in projected Medicare physician payment cuts. The SGR would be replaced with two new spending targets, one for primary care and one for all other services. Physician payment rates under the new formula would track GDP plus automatic annual increases of approximately 2 percent for primary care services and 1 percent for all others. The new spending targets would be rebased every 5 years so that any future projected cuts will be eliminated. Congressional leaders have committed to work with organized medicine to develop a longer term fix to the fee schedule beyond the 1-2 percent updates in future years.

There are other Medicare payment reforms contained within the larger health reform bill, HR 3962, which was passed by the House in early November. These reforms include an additional 5 percent Medicare primary care increase and a California GPCI fix.

The House is scheduled to vote on HR 3961 as early as tomorrow, November 17. This is a very important vote for physicians and their patients. Every doctor must call to ensure a successful vote. The sheer number of physician phone calls will matter.

Contact your Representative today to urge them to vote yes on HR 3961. Congress must understand that fixing the Medicare SGR is an essential component of health reform. We must fix the SGR to ensure that seniors, military families, and the disabled have access to doctors in California.

To call your Representatives, please use the AMA Grassroots Hotline at (800) 833-6354. Plug in your zip code and it will automatically connect you to your Member of Congress. Calling your Representative is more effective at this point than e-mail, but click here to send an email to your Representative.

For more information, please see CMA’s Medicare SGR Issue Brief.

Contact: Elizabeth McNeil, 415/882-3376 or emcneil@cmanet.org.