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.
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Contributors
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Alan Brookstone, MDFamily Physician, Chairman, Cientis Technologies and Co-Founder of AmericanEHR PartnersView Posts -
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 -
Jason Mitchell, MDDirector, American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Center for Health ITView Posts -
Mitchell A. Adler, MDCMIO, Physician & Ambulatory Network Services, NorthShore-LIJ Health SystemView Posts -
Jerome Carter, MD, FACP, FHIMSSEditor, Electronic Health Records, Second Edition and creator of the EHR Science blogView Posts -
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.