SGR Deal Done; Passage Expected the Week of 2/15/2012

A possible deal to freeze Medicare payments to doctors for 10 months was being discussed by Congress, the week of 2/15/2012.  There is talk from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that payments will hold steady at the 2011 levels until the end of 2012.  A 27.4% reduction in Medicare payments to doctors would take place on March 1, if there is no legislative action.  The bipartisan House-Senate conference committee has been trying to figure out three things for over a month now, which is a yearlong payroll cut extension, extension of unemployment benefits, and trying to fix the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula that is used to set Medicare pay rates to doctors.  Over half of the SGR fix would come from cutting $4 billion from the Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments.  These payments are supposed to go towards teaching hospitals how to treat the sickest patients.  Doing just another patch is an extreme disappointment, which means not protecting the care of the patients in the medical system, and the problem continues to grow and missed opportunities to keep the care of people safe from cuts has been what many have been complaining about.