Medicare pay: SGR fatigue - Physicians say they are beyond exasperation as Congress struggles to repeatedly patch Medicare rates, lately just for a month or two at a time.

[Guest guest]

Good article on how docs feel pounded down - to the point they are just dropping out of Medicare all together.

 

And a nice table on the Medicare fee raises (and not) over time. 

 

 

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/05/03/gvsa0503.htm

 

Medicare pay: SGR fatigue

Physicians say they are beyond exasperation as Congress struggles to repeatedly patch Medicare rates, lately just for a month or two at a time.

By Silva, amednews staff. Posted May 3, 2010.

 snip/snip

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Shorter patches for bigger cuts

Since 2002, Congress has stepped in nine times to prevent or reverse increasingly larger Medicare physician payment cuts mandated by the sustainable growth rate formula, usually for a year or more at a time. But recent patches have become even more short term:

Source: American Medical Association

Locke, MD