November 2005 | Vol. 23, No. 11

Status of Congressional Bills to Fix Physician Fee Schedule Issue

The “Preserving Patient Access to Physicians Act of 2005” (H.R. 2356 & S. 1081) would amend the Social Security Act to reform the Medicare physician payment update system through repeal of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) payment update system. This “conversion fix” legislation establishes an update to the single conversion factor for 2006 of at least 2.7 percent, and a formula for an update to the single conversion factor for 2007. To date, H.R. 2356, introduced by Rep. E. Clay Shaw, Jr. (R-FL) now has 157 co-sponsors. S. 1081, introduced by Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) now has 25 co-sponsors. You can find the list of all co-sponsors by going to the Thomas website at http://thomas.loc.gov and entering either H.R. 2356 or S. 1081 in the Bill number search field. After clicking on Search, click on Bill Status and Summary, and then click on cosponsors to get a complete list of all of the Bill’s cosponsors.

Realizing the serious problem in the SGR system, Congress was forced to undertake legislative measures in 1998 and 1999 to enable CMS to correct projection errors that were made in the physician fee schedule updates. More recently, Congress addressed this concern in the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) by implementing a positive 1.5 percent update as a floor in the conversion factor for 2004 and 2005 in order to prevent the 4.5 percent reduction in our payments that CMS had anticipated during those years. This "temporary fix" in the conversion factor was intended to provide Congress with time to reevaluate the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula that is used to determine physician payments. 

SVU thanks its members for sending SVU copies of their letters sent to their members of Congress asking them to support the “Preserving Patient Access to Physicians Act of 2005.” If you have not yet done so, there is still time to contact your Members of Congress by phone, fax or email to ask for their support of either H.R. 2356 or S. 1081 to permanently fix the physician fee schedule issue.

Contact ASAP your Members of Congress (your U.S. Representative and your two U.S. Senators) by urging them to co-sponsor one of these two important bills – H.R. 2356 or S. 1081–and urge immediate action on them in both the House and the Senate.  To determine your Members of Congress, please go to the following two websites: www.house.gov or www.senate.gov. You can get your Representative’s or Senator’s office fax numbers by calling the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and asking to be connected to your Representative’s or Senator’s office. Then tell them you are a constituent and would like the office fax number to fax a letter to the Representative or Senator about being a co-sponsor of the “Preserving Patient Access to Physicians Act of 2005.”

If you send a letter to your Members of Congress, SVU would appreciate receiving a copy of your correspondence. Please send it to SVU Executive Director Steve Haracznak by email at steveh@svunet.org, by fax at 301-459-5651, or by land mail to the SVU national office in Lanham, MD. Thanks for your support in contacting your Members of Congress regarding these important bills that will provide a permanent fix to the physician fee schedule issue.