Dear Speaker Boehner, Leader Pelosi, Leader Reid and Leader McConnell:
On behalf of the Alliance of Specialty Medicine (the Alliance), a coalition of medical specialty
societies representing more than 100,000 physicians and surgeons, we write to strongly urge
Congress to continue working to enact a permanent and meaningful solution to the flawed
Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula before the end of the 113th Congress.
Physicians and seniors have waited long enough for Congress to address this significant flaw in
our nation’s largest health program. Each year since 2002, the SGR formula has called for a
substantial reduction in Medicare physician payment rates. In 2002, payment rates were
reduced by 5.4 percent. In each subsequent year, Congress has overridden the formula,
specifying small increases or payment freezes instead of large cuts. These short-term “fixes”
exacerbate efforts to address the underlying problem, add to the overall costs of repeal, and
continue to undermine physician and beneficiary confidence in the Medicare program.
An SGR replacement should base physician reimbursements on the actual cost of providing care
and allow physicians to make investments in meaningful and relevant care delivery models that
aim to improve quality and efficiency and foster patient access to the physician of their choice.
While we were encouraged with the bipartisan, bicameral progress to repeal the SGR, we hope
that you do not lose this momentum by further postponing action on a full repeal. The Alliance
is on record in support of H.R. 4015/S. 2000, the “SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment
Modernization Act of 2014” which addresses many of our core principles.
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