Congressional Gimmicks leave Doctors and Taxpayers in a Lurch

Brian Blase / June 17, 2010

The Senate voted 45-52 yesterday to oppose the $140 billion so-called “extenders bill” (HR 4213). The Hill is reporting that Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) is going to offer a slimmed down version for consideration as early as today. Two key health provisions of the bill are expected to be a continued bailout of state Medicaid programs and a temporary Medicare ‘Doc Fix’.

The Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR), initiated in 1997, links the increase in Medicare reimbursement rates to growth in GDP. Since medical costs historically increase at a rate more than twice GDP, the SGR reduces the real payments physicians receive. A temporary “fix” has happened nine times in nine years to increase Medicare rates above SGR levels. Temporary fixes are the easy way out for politicians because they appear less costly to budget.

The Hill reports that Senator Baucus is going to use a budgetary trick by paring down the “doc fix” from 19 months to 6 months. Of course, this means that the budgetary cost of the bill will appear smaller, but in reality the only difference is that Congress will have to revisit this issue in 6 months instead of 19 months – kicking the can down the road once again. (more…)