2009-08-25

During a conference call with physicians, White House staff strongly reaffirmed their commitment to a Medicare physician payment fix and assured that a Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) fix will be included in any health reform measure. The call was focused on eliciting physician support for reform as the Obama Administration contends with dwindling public support and continues to negotiate with Congress over key components. Fixing the flawed SGR formula has been a huge point of contention in the debate. While policy makers have widely acknowledged that the current physician payment system needs to be corrected and physicians can not be expected to withstand the scheduled 21 percent payment cut to begin in January 2010, fixing the formula has been estimated to cost $245 billion over 10 years – requiring revenue raising or cost-saving mechanisms elsewhere in the legislation.

Physicians can visit www.healthreform.gov for information from the White House on health-care reform. Additional information from ASH on health reform is also available.

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