diesel96
Well-Known Member
The problem first became apparent in 2002, when Medicare costs outpaced the SGR. A Republican-led Congress stepped in with extra funding the following year, preventing a reduction in doctor payments. Congress has continued to do so for seven years now.
Under both Democratic and Republican leadership, Congress has consistently delivered the necessary funds to avoid cuts to doctor salaries.
A CBO report this month estimated that $276 billion would be required to shore up Medicare for the next decade. Not surprisingly, no politician wants to get stuck with that check. So they’ve all politely deferred from the financial commitments in order to avoid the appearance of adding billions of dollars to the national deficit.
But the “doc fix” actually fixes nothing. Health policy experts agree that health spending is not slowing down, so the short-term patches only “kick the can down the road,” as Van de Water put it. “They want to have their cake and eat it, too.”
In other words, it’s a face-saving gimmick that makes it look like Congress is sticking to Medicare cost controls when it isn’t, despite numerous red flags over the years.
A CBO report in 2006 suggested that “the SGR mechanism ... will substantially reduce payment rates for physicians’ services over the next several years. Payment rates could decline by a total of 25 [percent] and 35 percent during that period if physicians continue to provide services at the current rate.”
A 2007 report from MedPac, which advises Congress on Medicare, found that, in addition to failing to keep pace with spending, the SGR had not tamped down doctor spending. “The SGR does not appear to have limited the growth in volume — that is, the number of services being furnished to each patient and the level of service intensity provided,” the report concluded.
One option would be to ditch SGR and find a new, better formula that would make the “doc fix” ritual obsolete. The American Medical Association, which has previously supported temporary “doc fix” legislation, has demanded this kind of permanent action, so the short-term fix that landed in the House proposal left them unsatisfied.
“The pending Medicare proposal treats the symptoms,” AMA President J. James Rohack said in a statement late last week. “It’s not a cure for the disease. We urge Congress to take action well before the next deadline to cure this problem once and for all to preserve access to care for seniors and military families and enable the success of health system reform and delivery innovations.”
But Congress has declined to move in that direction, and, for now, the exercise carries on. In 2010 alone, Congress has already headed off three scheduled payment drops — in January, March and April. This week, if all goes as the Democrats planned, they will extend the “doc fix” for an additional three years. The problem will be settled in the short term — until the 112th Congress takes up the issue all over again.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37719_Page2.html#ixzz0qo1e9erD
Under both Democratic and Republican leadership, Congress has consistently delivered the necessary funds to avoid cuts to doctor salaries.
A CBO report this month estimated that $276 billion would be required to shore up Medicare for the next decade. Not surprisingly, no politician wants to get stuck with that check. So they’ve all politely deferred from the financial commitments in order to avoid the appearance of adding billions of dollars to the national deficit.
But the “doc fix” actually fixes nothing. Health policy experts agree that health spending is not slowing down, so the short-term patches only “kick the can down the road,” as Van de Water put it. “They want to have their cake and eat it, too.”
In other words, it’s a face-saving gimmick that makes it look like Congress is sticking to Medicare cost controls when it isn’t, despite numerous red flags over the years.
A CBO report in 2006 suggested that “the SGR mechanism ... will substantially reduce payment rates for physicians’ services over the next several years. Payment rates could decline by a total of 25 [percent] and 35 percent during that period if physicians continue to provide services at the current rate.”
A 2007 report from MedPac, which advises Congress on Medicare, found that, in addition to failing to keep pace with spending, the SGR had not tamped down doctor spending. “The SGR does not appear to have limited the growth in volume — that is, the number of services being furnished to each patient and the level of service intensity provided,” the report concluded.
One option would be to ditch SGR and find a new, better formula that would make the “doc fix” ritual obsolete. The American Medical Association, which has previously supported temporary “doc fix” legislation, has demanded this kind of permanent action, so the short-term fix that landed in the House proposal left them unsatisfied.
“The pending Medicare proposal treats the symptoms,” AMA President J. James Rohack said in a statement late last week. “It’s not a cure for the disease. We urge Congress to take action well before the next deadline to cure this problem once and for all to preserve access to care for seniors and military families and enable the success of health system reform and delivery innovations.”
But Congress has declined to move in that direction, and, for now, the exercise carries on. In 2010 alone, Congress has already headed off three scheduled payment drops — in January, March and April. This week, if all goes as the Democrats planned, they will extend the “doc fix” for an additional three years. The problem will be settled in the short term — until the 112th Congress takes up the issue all over again.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37719_Page2.html#ixzz0qo1e9erD
