A House vote today may have derailed physicians’ chances of finally getting Medicare’s formula for paying doctors repealed.
The House voted 237-182 today to approve an amended version of the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014 (H.R. 4015).
The amended bill, authored by Dave Camp (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, tacked on language stipulating that no American would be subject to a penalty tax for failure to obtain government-approved health insurance – known as the individual mandate – until 2019.
The bill will now go on to the Senate, where it is not expected to pass, thwarting a long campaign by physicians to get the SGR repealed and putting doctors in danger of facing a 24 percent pay cut, which is scheduled to go into effect March 31.
Physicians’ groups decried the vote immediately.
“The American Academy of Family Physicians is deeply disappointed the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act has become collateral damage in an ongoing dispute over unrelated budgetary policy,” said Reid Blackwelder, MD, president of the AAFP in a statement.
“We’re dismayed that Congress sabotaged their own work by linking this legislation to unrelated, ideological issues – particularly in light of the nearly universal opposition to such action from patients, insurers and the medical community,” he added.
"Tying SGR repeal to what will be the 51st vote in the House to repeal or scale back the Affordable Care Act needlessly politicizes an important issue that enjoys widespread bi-partisan support," said Anders Gilberg, senior vice president of government affairs for the Medical Group Management Association, ahead of today’s vote. "Delaying the individual mandate will not pass in the Senate. Instead of working together to find a way to pay for SGR repeal legislation, this political approach increases the likelihood of another temporary patch. A patch will only compound the high price tag of SGR repeal and impede efforts to modernize and improve the Medicare physician payment system."
Gerald Kominski, PhD, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, agreed that partisan politics are at play.
"The House is committed to repealing or seriously damaging Obamacare at every opportunity. This is yet another opportunity to do that. The two issues are completely unrelated," Kominski, a former staff member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, told Medical Practice Insider, Healthcare Finance News’ sister publication.
"It's difficult to assess whether this is a genuine attempt at staking out an extreme position and then seeking a compromise, or whether it is a continuation of the tactics the House has engaged in now for several years,” he added. “It's unfortunate that the SGR issue is getting caught up in the politics of Obamacare because resolution to the problem is essential and long overdue."
The office of Rep. Eric Cantor, who called today’s vote, did not respond to a request for comment.