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Congress Agrees to Short Term SGR Fix
January 5, 2012
Congressional leaders have announced that they have accepted a two-month fix to the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula used to calculate Medicare physician payments. Without this legislation, physicians would have faced a 27 percent drop in Medicare reimbursement payments.
Congress passed the two-month Medicare physician payment patch as part of a larger tax bill that also extends other provisions for two months, including a federal payroll tax holiday and unemployment compensation.
When Congress returns in January, both the House and the Senate will appoint conferees to discuss a longer-term extension of the SGR formula as well as other issues. Current conferees that have been named are:
Senate Democrats
- Senator Max Baucus (MT)
- Senator Ben Cardin (MD)
- Senator Jack Reed (RI)
- Senator Bob Casey (PA)
Senate Republicans
- Senator Jon Kyl (AZ)
- Senator Mike Crapo (ID)
- Senator John Barrasso (WY)
House Democrats
- Rep. Chris Van Hollen (MD)
- Rep. Sander Levin (MI)
- Rep. Xavier Becerra (CA)
- Rep. Allyson Schwartz (PA)
- Rep. Henry Waxman (CA)
House Republicans
- Rep. Dave Camp (MI)
- Rep. Fred Upton (MI)
- Rep. Kevin Brady (TX)
- Rep. Renee Ellmers (NC)
- Rep. Nan Hayworth (NY)
- Rep. Tom Reed (NY)
- Rep. Tom Price (GA)
- Rep. Greg Walden (OR)