25% Medicare Cuts Stopped for 1 Year

The U.S. House of Representatives voted today to adopt legislation, identical to the one passed by the Senate yesterday, to avert the 25% Medicare payment cuts to physician reimbursement. The cuts, which were scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2011, will be halted for 12 months. The legislation will now be sent to President Barack Obama for signature.

Stopping the cuts for one year will help provide the much needed stability for physician practices, which will not have to face the same uncertainty as in 2010, when five short-term fixes were passed. ISIS strongly supports using these 12 months to devise a long-term legislative solution to the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula, and to eliminate the repeated battles to prevent devastating payment cuts for physician services.