Pay and Practice: Semi-Permanent SGR Repeal?

It sounds like an oxymoron -- semi-permanent repeal -- but some former Medicare administrators are suggesting it as a solution to permanently repealing Medicare's much-hated sustainable growth rate (SGR) payment formula.

Their idea is a 5-year SGR suspension, which fits somewhere in between familiar 1-year patches and a permanent repeal Congress is working toward now. Essentially, the idea is to take the 10-year SGR repeal legislation that various congressional committees are working on now and implement only the first 5 years.

A 5-year suspension of SGR would be cheaper for Congress to finance as opposed to a permanent repeal, said Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, who ran the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) from 2004 to 2006. A repeal is considered permanent if it's funded for at least 10 years.

Read the full story here: http://n.pr/1mRHXVd

Source: MedPage Today