{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/releases?ContentRecord_id=99d0e7fd-5862-44fc-a6de-36dfda353480", "Senate, House Health Leaders Introduce Bipartisan Medicare SGR Replacement Proposal", "2013-10-31", "2013", "2013-10", "Republican", "House", "UT", "Orrin Hatch", "H000338", "www.hatch.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Today, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT), Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-UT), House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI), and House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI), released a discussion draft outline to permanently fix the broken Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula.\r\nThe bipartisan, bicameral framework \u2014 released in a discussion draft \u2014corrects a decade-long problem that has created uncertainty for millions of Medicare providers and beneficiaries. The leaders of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee have collaborated closely to develop a framework to solicit input to begin the committee process for a full repeal of the flawed formula. The discussion draft is available here.\u00a0 Below is a summary of the SGR discussion draft.\r\n\u201cAfter much input from key stakeholders we have come together to create a permanent fix to the Medicare physician payment formula,\u201d said Chairman Baucus.\u00a0 \u201cFor years, Medicare payments to doctors have been at risk of being slashed, limiting seniors\u2019 access to high quality care.\u00a0 Enough with the quick fixes.\u00a0 Our proposal is for a new physician payment system that rewards value over volume. It will go a long way in improving the efficiency and quality of care for America\u2019s seniors.\u201d\r\n\u201cFor too long the flawed Medicare physician payment formula has jeopardized seniors' access to the high quality health care they deserve,\u201d said Ranking Member Hatch. \u201cWith short-term fixes, Congress for years didn't meet the challenge with a real solution. That changes with this bipartisan framework we are unveiling today. We have put forward a permanent solution that repeals the current broken doctor payment system and replaces it with an innovative, new way that rewards physicians who provide quality health care.\u201d\r\n\u201cProviding a permanent solution to the broken SGR formula is vital to ensuring that seniors continue to have access to high quality care,\u201d said Chairman Camp.\u00a0 \u201cThis discussion draft is an important step in a long-term solution to this failed policy.\u00a0 Creating a policy that rewards providers for delivering high-quality, efficient health care is the ultimate goal, and this draft brings us one step closer to that reality.\u201d\r\n\u201cThis bipartisan framework is a welcome first step both toward fixing a broken formula that creates enormous uncertainty for health care providers and patients and also toward continuing the reform of our health care system,\u201d said Ranking Member Levin. \u201cThe framework builds off the tremendous work of the Energy and Commerce Committee and Rep. Allyson Schwartz, further emphasizing value over volume and innovative delivery systems within Medicare.\u201d\r\nSummary of the SGR Problem:\r\nThe Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula \u2013 the mechanism that ties physician payment updates to the relationship between overall fee schedule spending and growth in gross domestic product (GDP) \u2013 is fundamentally broken.\u00a0 Although originally introduced as a mechanism to contain the growth in spending on physician services, a decade of short-term \u201cpatches\u201d has frustrated providers, threatened access for beneficiaries, and created a budgetary dilemma from which Congress has struggled to emerge.\u00a0 Unless Congress acts by January 1, 2014 physician payments will be cut by approximately 24.4 percent.\u00a0 Over the last decade, Congress has spent nearly $150 billion on short-term SGR overrides to prevent pending cuts.\u00a0\r\nThe 113th Congress has brought renewed commitment to repealing and replacing the flawed SGR update mechanism.\u00a0 This effort has been helped by the significantly reduced Congressional Budget Office score for a freeze of physician payments over the next ten years ($139 billion) and the bipartisan proposal reported out by the House Energy & Commerce Committee in July.\u00a0 Building on that effort, this bipartisan, bicameral discussion draft from the Ways & Means and Senate Finance Committees seeks to move away from the current volume-based payment system to one that rewards quality, efficiency, and innovation.\r\nKey points on the SGR discussion draft. It would: \r\n \r\nRepeal the flawed SGR mechanism, ensures payment stability for physicians, and ensures beneficiaries retain access to their physicians\r\nImprove the physician payment system to reward value over volume, ensuring beneficiaries and taxpayers receive value for the money spent\r\nAdvance delivery system reforms and aligns public-private sector efforts\r\nImprove the accuracy of payments for physician services\u00a0\u00a0\r\nIncorporate physician and stakeholder expertise\u00a0\r\nUtilize physician-developed guidelines to avoid provision of unnecessary services\r\nReduce administrative burden on providers by aligning current physician quality programs\r\nProvide timely feedback data to physicians and makes more Medicare data publicly available \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\r\n \r\nSummary of Discussion Draft:\r\nThe framework would permanently repeal the SGR update mechanism, reform the fee-for-service (FFS) payment system through greater focus on value over volume, and encourage participation in alternative payment models (APM), such as accountable care organizations and patient-centered medical homes.\u00a0 The revised FFS system would freeze current payment levels through the ten-year budget window, while allowing individual physicians and other health care professionals (subsequently referred to collectively as \u201cprofessionals\u201d) to earn performance-based incentive payments through a compulsory budget-neutral program.\u00a0 By combining the current quality incentive programs into one comprehensive program, this framework would further value-based purchasing within the overall Medicare program while maintaining and improving the efficiency of the underlying structure with which professionals are already familiar.\u00a0 Professionals who receive a significant portion of their revenue from an APM(s) that involves two-sided financial risk and a quality measurement component (referred to as an \u201cadvanced APM\u201d) would be exempted from the performance-based incentive program, and would instead receive a bonus payment starting in 2016.\u00a0 By providing funding for measure development priorities for professionals, the framework would address the current gaps in quality measurement programs and ensure meaningful measures on which to assess professionals.\r\nThe framework would encourage care management services for individuals with complex chronic care needs through the development of new payment codes for such services, as well as leverage physician-developed standard of care guidelines to avoid the unnecessary provision of services.\u00a0 It would also improve the accuracy of the physician fee schedule by setting a target for correcting misvalued services and allow for the collection of information on resources used in furnishing services.\u00a0\r\nRecognizing the role of quality and resource use data in helping consumers make informed purchasing decisions and helping professionals improve their performance, the framework would expand the data available to qualified entities (QEs) for quality improvement activities as well as the information available on the Physician Compare website.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/releases?ContentRecord_id=99d0e7fd-5862-44fc-a6de-36dfda353480"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0060782078653574, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}