Senate Takes First Step to Fix Medicare Fee Cuts

Tags: Medicare | physicians | reimbursement | Sustainable Growth Rate

The U.S. Senate has passed a measure that would be the first step in eliminating yearly Medicare reimbursement cuts for physicians, according to a release from the American Gastroenterological Association.

The measure would exempt the cost of repealing for five years the sustainable growth rate (SGR), which mandates the fee cuts, and would transition physicians to a new payment system similar to what the House passed last fall.

Senate Democrats, who passed the measure on a party-line vote, plan to attach it to a bill to extend unemployment insurance, which expires next month.

Read the American Gastroenterological Association's release on sustainable growth rate.