Medicare physician payment rates were 'frozen' at current levels, avoiding a 27.4% cut. The freeze was part of the payroll tax reduction extension package signed into law on February 22, 2012. This brief reprieve from constant threats of a payment cut is merely another patch, and not a permanent fix of the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula. If new legislation does not address the issue by the end of December 2012, the scheduled physician cut as of next year will be 32%.