Washington, D.C. - Today, by a vote of 392-37, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (H.R. 2). H.R. 2 repeals Medicare's flawed formula for reimbursing doctors, and replaces it with a long-term funding plan. The bill also extends the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for two years. In voting for the bill, U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce issued the following statement:
"H.R. 2 is a critical first step that will help provide seniors with access to quality healthcare, while ensuring doctors will be able to continue serving them within the Medicare program. This is not a perfect bill, but it is a course correction," Pearce said.
"The current formula, known as the sustainable growth rate (SGR), has forced 17 short-term costly patches over the past 11 years in order to prevent devastating Medicare reimbursement rate cuts.
"Tackling difficult problems with commonsense solutions is what we were sent to Washington to do. With overwhelming support from both sides of the aisle, this bill is an example of how we can come together to improve access to healthcare and also make government more effective, efficient and accountable," Pearce added.
Background: H.R. 2 repeals the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and replaces it with a formula that returns stability to Medicare physician payments. The bill would establish a 0.5 percent payment update every year for 5 years, and would improve the fee-for-service system by streamlining Medicare's existing quality assurance programs into one single program.
The Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) is a formula that was enacted in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 to control Medicare spending on physician services. However, the SGR policy flaws have compelled Congress to override the formula-driven cuts for more than a decade. In fact, since 2003, Congress has spent nearly $170 billion in short-term patches to avoid these unsustainable cuts. The most recent patch will expire on March 31, 2015. H.R. 2 repeals the SGR, averting a 21 percent SGR-induced cut scheduled for April 1, 2015.