As Congress continues its deliberations on the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) and other issues related to H.R. 3630, the Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011, ASA re-affirmed the specialty’s strong support for a full repeal of SGR. ASA urged that the SGR be replaced with a new payment model that takes into account the specialty’s unique historical payment disparity known as the “33% problem.” ASA further advocated tying the payment fixes to the immediate repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB)—an unaccountable and unelected board created under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act with sweeping powers to mandate Medicare payment cuts.
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