Proposed Bill to Permanently Fix Annual Medicare Physician Reimbursement Crisis

House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced yesterday that they agreed to advance a bill to permanently fix the payment system for Medicare physicians. Details of the bill have yet to be released, but multiple news agencies are reporting that Boehner and Pelosi agreed to a $210 billion deal that would replace the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate, which is the formula used to determine payments to Medicare physicians. Each year, this formula requires Congress to pass a “doc fix” or else Medicare physicians face a significant cut in reimbursement. The latest “doc fix” expires on March 31st. If the proposed bill is not agreed upon by the end of the month (and in lieu of the bill passing, another “doc fix” is not passed), then Medicare physicians could face 20% cuts in reimbursement.

For more information, please contact Adrienne Dresevic, Esq., at adresevic@thehlp.com or (248) 996-8510.