Docs Worried as Payment Cut Deadline Nears

In October, AMA lobbied unsuccessfully for a bill that would have reset the sustainable growth rate formula for physicians back to zero to eliminate around $245 billion debt that has accumulated during the past six years as a result of Congress' annual fixes. The bill mustered only 47 of the 60 votes needed to bring it to the Senate floor. Now, the SRG fix could get even more difficult because of the election year concern in Washington over red ink. Republicans have made the $12.4 trillion national debt, and the $1.4 trillion federal budget deficit key issues against Democrats.

Despite the cloudy budget picture, Wilson says AMA remains insistent upon a permanent fix to the problem, and not another "kick-the-can" deadline extension. He concedes, however, that a temporary fix is more likely with the looming deadline.

"Obviously, the later you get the more likely you fear that that is what Congress will do. What we are saying is that is unacceptable," he says. "A year and a half ago, we provided support for another temporary fix with the commitment from Congress in both houses on both sides of the aisle that in the coming 18 months they would have plenty of time to decide how to fix the problem permanently and get us out of this situation. They have frittered away that opportunity and now they are in the same position they have been in on an annual basis ever since 2001."

"Congress somehow finds a way to do things that they feel are important. When they feel there is urgency about something, they find a way to do it," he says. Heim says AAFP "has pretty much exhausted most of the ideas of our members." At this point, she says, family physicians are being asked to contact their respective members of Congress with a personal plea to address SGR.

"There is some physician fatigue going on here," Heim says. "I'm having more physicians this year than ever before tell me 'I just don't think Congress gets it and I am tired of doing the last-minute fix.'"