Healthcare stakeholders are concerned about Congress’ ability to stave off a scheduled 30% Medicare physician pay cut scheduled for 2013, particularly with the November election and the anticipated workload during the lame duck session.
Democrats and Republicans agree that they need to delay the 2013 pay cut but cannot agree on how to do it. There are fears that Congress will not address the ‘doc fix’ problem and simply freeze Medicare claims.
Despite efforts by congressional panels to solicit suggestions about how to address the issue, stakeholders do not believe Congress will develop a permanent fix to the SGR.
