SGR Repeal Plea Backed by 110 Physician Groups

More than 110 physician specialty and state medical society organizations this week renewed what has become an annual plea for Congress to repeal the sustainable growth rate formula.

If implemented according to schedule, the SGR will cut doctors' Medicare pay 27%, leaving doctors with only 73 cents of every dollar the program pays them today starting on Jan. 1.

The cost of repealing the SGR to restore those payments would be $245 billion over the next 10 years, according to August projections from the Congressional Budget Office.

The physician groups made their plea in a letter this week to Senate Finance Committee members Sen. Orrin Hatch, (R-UT) and Sen. Max Baucus, (D-MT), calling the SGR "an enormous impediment to successful healthcare delivery and payment reforms that can improve the quality of patient care while lowering growth in costs."