The 2015 Doc-Fix Debate: Are We Finally Getting a Permanent Solution?

[Geee]

The Hill:

11 years. 17 short-term patches. $175 billion in taxpayer money.

 

This sums up the current debate over the flawed Medicare physician payment formula known as the Sustainable Growth Rate or the SGR.

 

Introduced nearly 20 years ago, the SGR intended to help control the amount Medicare spends on reimbursing physicians for their services by tying updates to target rates of spending growth. However, Congress did not accurately anticipate just how quickly health care costs would outpace economic growth, thus negating SGR’s intended impact and causing a multi-billion dollar funding deficit.

 

Even though both sides of the aisle agree that a permanent solution for this ongoing problem is needed, Congress has gotten into a bad habit of taking the easy route and prolonging the inevitable by passing 17 expensive, short-term patches. Last year’s patch alone cost $15.8 billion.