We need your help to urge Congress to repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) once and for all. We are all well aware that inaction or “kicking the can down the road” as Congress has done for years leaves doctors stuck with a 30 percent cut in Medicare pay beginning January 1.

Early results from a survey of ISMA members currently available on our website tell us that if the cut occurs, just over one third of those responding will consider not accepting new Medicare patients. Nearly 45 percent say they will opt out of Medicare and require direct payment. While these percentages sound large, our sample is small. We need more of you to respond here.

MedPAC proposal not following doctors’ orders
In early September, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission issued its own recommendation to repeal the SGR using a broad range of budget offsets. The proposal calls for a freeze for primary care and 5.9 percent cut for all of the other specialties for each of the next three years followed by a seven year freeze. The proposal will be voted on at MedPAC’s Oct. 6-7 meeting.

AMA President Peter Carmel, M.D., says MedPAC’s recommendations are misguided.

The new cuts are inconsistent with MedPAC’s previous recommendations to stop cuts to physicians who care for Medicare patients. The AMA and the ISMA oppose the MedPAC proposal for offsetting the cost of repealing the SGR. The combination of payment cuts and freezes it suggests will reduce patient access and derail delivery innovations just beginning that are key to lowering health care costs.

Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction action
The ISMA has joined the AMA and 117 other state and national medical specialty societies in a sign-on letter calling for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to include the SGR repeal in its final legislation. The “supercommittee” held its first hearing Sept. 13. Their recommendations are due by Nov. 23. You can encourage the committee to repeal the SGR here.