2012-05-22
Once again, physicians face a significant
payment reduction beginning January 1 unless the Congress passes a legislative
fix to avert the cut and correct the flawed physician payment formula.
For almost a decade, Congress has
overridden the reductions in payment rates dictated by the Sustainable Growth
Rate, a 1997 formula designed to keep Medicare costs under control. But
lawmakers have never come up with a way to handle the problem permanently. In
the past few weeks, however, they have started to talk about possible solutions
in a way they have not been able to do before.
Representatives Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) and
Joe Heck (R-NV) have introduced bipartisan legislation to get rid of the SGR
and begin a series of demonstration programs to develop new payment models that
could replace it.
Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee
conducted a special forum with four former Medicare chiefs on May 10 to
brainstorm ideas for how to do away with the nagging payment-reimbursement
issue. Ranking Republican on the Committee, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), said
that despite the bipartisan support to repeal the formula, “a solution has
eluded the Congress up to this particular point.”
That can be blamed on two things: First, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost of repealing the
formula at $316 billion over 10 years. Second — and this is where lawmakers are
now focusing their attention — there is no consensus on how to replace the
system.
The caution comes from remembering that the
formula was put in place with the best of intentions. It was enacted as part of
a balanced-budget proposal to help curb the growth rate of Medicare spending.
The formula calls for automatic cuts in Medicare’s reimbursement rates for
providers when the growth rate of provider costs exceeds the growth rate of the
economy.
Beginning in 2002, the formula has called
for cuts. Congress allowed the first cuts to take place, but since then,
lawmakers have given in to provider protests and blocked the reductions.
Instead, they went for short-term payment patches known as the “doc fix.” The
current patch expires at the end of 2012.
Lawmakers are again trying to figure out
what could replace the formula. Many provider groups and experts agree that
Medicare must replace the fee-for-service payment model, and that one system
won’t work for all types of physicians in all types of environments.
Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) Chair of the
Finance Committee asked the former Medicare directors to send him, by mid-June,
short- and long-term suggestions on new ways to handle physician payments.
Chairman Baucus said he felt that the consensus was to repeal the formula, put
in place stable but temporary payment rates and then gradually move to new
payment models.
That is the model promoted in the
Schwartz-Heck legislation, which would set a five-year transition period during
which physicians would get small rate increases and the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services would develop and test new payment models. By 2017,
physicians could choose from at least four delivery and payment models identified
by CMS.
One of those models could rely on bundled
payments. Under that plan, Medicare would provide a single payment for a health
incident rather than pay each care provider separately. That means doctors,
hospitals and post-hospital treatment providers would all have an incentive to
coordinate and provide the most efficient and best-quality care, with all
sharing the potential savings.
However, others warn that some bundled
payment models would not work in smaller communities with fewer providers and
suggested looking at separate reimbursement systems in rural communities and
those in urban areas.
Of course, there is still the matter of how
to pay for any replacement. Schwartz and Heck’s proposal would use the
anticipated savings from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to pay
for the change. Although some Republicans have balked at that offset, the
sponsors say it could win support in both parties.
If Congress continues with temporary fixes,
however, instituting a replacement will only become harder. Every time it
blocks the cuts, Congress increases the cost of getting rid of the formula,
because Medicare savings have never been realized. That means that with every
new fix, Congress must pay for the cost of the increased payment rates as well
as make up for the missed savings and postponed rate reductions.
ASH
strongly opposes the nearly 30 percent physician payment cut scheduled to begin
in 2013 and continues to advocate for a permanent fix to the physician payment
problem. The Soicety supports the Schwartz-Heck bill.
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