The President’s Podium: Getting Closer to a Medicare Payment Fix
by Ronald Dunlap, M.D., President, Massachusetts Medical Society Mention “SGR” to physicians and you can almost see and feel the tension and level of frustration. For nearly a dozen years, this...
View ArticleHouse and Senate Committees Approve Bills to Repeal the SGR
The House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee today separately approved bills that would repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) Medicare physician payment formula, and replace...
View ArticleHouse Schedules a Thursday Vote on Another Medicare Patch; AMA Urges No Vote
With the debate about how to fund a bipartisan bill repealing the Medicare physician payment formula stalled, the House is set to vote Thursday morning on a bill to extend the current payment formula...
View ArticleOver Protests, House Passes One-Year Extension to Medicare Payment Formula
Despite strong protests from much of organized medicine, the U.S. House today approved – without a roll call – a one-year extension of the current Medicare payment formula. The Senate is expected to...
View ArticleSenate Extends Medicare Payment “Patch” for One Year
The Senate today approved a one-year extension of the current Medicare payment formula, rejecting a last-ditch effort by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to replace it with a permanent repeal of the entire...
View ArticleRecapping a Busy Year: MMS Health Care Advocacy in 2014
Ronald W. Dunlap, MD, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, kicked off the Society’s 2014 Annual Meeting with a review of five significant advocacy issues from the 2013-14 year: Medicare...
View ArticleU.S. House Makes History, Votes to Repeal Medicare SGR Payment Formula
In a historic move, the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Thursday in favor of repealing the flawed Medicare physician payment formula by a vote of 392-37. All Massachusetts members...
View ArticleMedicare Initiates Plans to Pay Claims With 21% Cut
UPDATE: 10:30 a.m., 4/16/15 The Senate repealed the SGR on the evening of April 14. However, because the bill has not yet been signed, a small number of claims are being processed at the reduced rate,...
View ArticleKiss the SGR Goodbye: Senate Repeals Medicare Payment Formula
In an historic vote Tuesday night, the U.S. Senate finally repealed the flawed Medicare payment formula that has been plaguing physicians for more than 17 years. The final vote was 92-8. Senators...
View ArticleCost-cutting measures should not be at the expense of patient care – Dr. Dorkin
It’s no secret that health care in the United States – including here in the Commonwealth – is expensive, and the rising cost of prescription drugs plays no small role in that. However, as physicians...
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