In case you missed it, Congress passed legislation this week to “patch” the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and delay ICD10 for another year. The process used by the House to pass the bill (voice vote; no accountability) was the subject of several articles. Government HealthIT Editor Tom Sullivan called it the “dark side” of the bill. Ed Park, EVP/COO of athenahealth called the ICD-10 delay a “canary in a coal mine”. John Halamka asked some CIOs what they thought and the responses were mixed. Professional societies generally were not supportive of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act 2014 because the bipartisan, bicameral bill to replace the SGR was the closest Congress has gotten to eliminating the SGR after after 16 “patches”. Now, there’s a 17th patch. Here’s one blog post from ACP’s Bob Doherty, Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs & Public Policy – and an April Fool’s jibe at the whole process. AAFP expressed disappointment as did the AMA. Politico reports that there are still ongoing efforts to work on a permanent solution to the SGR. For now, it just looks like kicking the can down the road…again.
Contributors
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Alan Brookstone, MDFamily Physician, Chairman, Cientis Technologies and Co-Founder of AmericanEHR PartnersView Posts
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Michael S. Barr, MD, MBA, FACPFormer Senior Vice President, Division of Medical Practice, Professionalism & Quality, American College of PhysiciansView Posts
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Mary GriskewiczMary P. Griskewicz is the Senior Director of Healthcare Information Systems for the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).View Posts
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Mitchell A. Adler, MDCMIO, Physician & Ambulatory Network Services, NorthShore-LIJ Health SystemView Posts
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Jerome Carter, MD, FACP, FHIMSSEditor, Electronic Health Records, Second Edition and creator of the EHR Science blogView Posts
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William S. Underwood MPHSenior Associate, Center For Practice Improvement & Innovation, American College of PhysiciansView Posts
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Edgar WilsonEdgar Wilson is an independent consultant from Oregon who writes on trends in education, healthcare, and public policy.View Posts
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Abhinav ShashankCEO & Co-Founder of Innovaccer. Abhinav is an expert in entrepreneurial skills and robust technologies. His goal is to create the World's most intuitive Big Data Platform which would revolutionize Population Health Management.View Posts
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Megan NicholsMegan Nichols is a science writer who enjoys writing about healthcare, psychology and other scientific fields of study.View Posts
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Frank IrvingEditor, PhysBizTech, an online publication covering business and technology issues at small physician practices.View Posts
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Alex TateDigital marketing specialist, content strategist, and health IT Consultant at CureMD.View Posts
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Duane NickullCTO Hot Tomali Communications and AmericanEHR Partners Advisor Former Senior Technical Evangelist, AdobeView Posts
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Benjamin ShibataBenjamin Shibata graduated from UCLA with a degree in bioengineering. He is currently a Master of Public Health student at George Washington University studying health policy.View Posts
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Paul BrientPaul has more than two decades of experience in healthcare information technology and as CEO of PatientKeeper, he is focused on making electronic medical records easier to use for physicians so that more time can be spent focused on patient care. Prior to joining PatientKeeper in 2002, Brient held senior executive-level positions at leading healthcare and consulting firms including McKesson Corporation, HPR, and The Boston Consulting Group.View Posts
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David Wiljer & Sara UrowitzDavid Wiljer, PhD is Director, Knowledge Management and Innovation at University Health Network, Toronto. Sara Urowitz, MSW, PhD is Manager, Education Informatics and ELLICSR: Health, Wellness and Cancer Survivorship Centre and Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of TorontoView Posts
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Michael W. JakovcicMichael W. Jakovcic is E.V.P. Fusion Consulting, Healthcare Division.View Posts
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Sara UrowitzSara Urowitz, MSW, PhD is Manager, Education Informatics and ELLICSR: Health, Wellness and Cancer Survivorship Centre and Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto.View Posts
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The Senate voted Monday evening to delay scheduled cuts in physician payments under Medicare and move the switch to ICD-10 billing codes to October 2015.The chamber passed a bill that delays by 12 months pending reimbursement cuts under Medicare’s sustainable growth rate (SGR) payment formula. Physicians were to face 24% cuts in Medicare payments starting Tuesday unless Congress acted.