Currently, physicians are paid for their services to Medicare patients by means of the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula. The SGR produces negative payments based on unrelated economic factors, not on the health care needs of Medicare beneficiaries or physicians’ costs of providing care.
In late 2010, Congress acted to extend Medicare physician payment rates through the end of 2011. We call on congress to subsequently provide a multi-year extension of the SGR with differential payment for primary care while physician organizations and policy centers collect data on the various payment model experiments like the Patient-Centered Medical Home and Accountable Care Organizations. We recommend using the resulting data to develop a new and effective physician-endorsed payment model.
