House Republicans vowed not to force hospitals to pay for the party's plan to repeal Medicare's sustainable growth rate, an annual source of legislative ire that would drastically cut physician pay that Congress has overridden every year since 2003, according to a report by The Hill. In the last SGR fix, reached in the January deal to avert the "fiscal cliff," lawmakers pushed almost half of the $30 billion bill onto hospitals to supplement Medicare payments to physicians.
GOP representatives urged instead for structural reforms to Medicare to foot the bill, including altering premiums for Medicare Parts A, B and D, according to the report. The politicians implied the time is ripe for such changes as they are likely to be less politically onerous now that the Congressional Budget Office projected the cost of an SGR repeal to be $107 billion cheaper than previously expected.
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GOP representatives urged instead for structural reforms to Medicare to foot the bill, including altering premiums for Medicare Parts A, B and D, according to the report. The politicians implied the time is ripe for such changes as they are likely to be less politically onerous now that the Congressional Budget Office projected the cost of an SGR repeal to be $107 billion cheaper than previously expected.
More Articles on Health Information Technology:
Oregon Health & Science University Earns Healthcare Technology Award
CMS Launches eHealth Initiative
Could Compromise Have Been Worse Than Sequestration for Hospitals?