The NCMS joined with 47 physician organizations this week to ask Congress to repeal Medicare’s sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula by using excesses from Overseas Contingency Operations (no longer needed for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan).

In a letter to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Michigan), the organizations stated, “This long-stated goal of Congress (SGR repeal) is now within reach, and we urge you to take advantage of it immediately by using excess baseline projections for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) to help offset necessary Medicare baseline changes.“ The letter adds that further delays will only make future cuts deeper and more expensive to solve.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the cost of repealing the SGR is $290 billion and growing. The AMA says a two-year SGR patch will cost $39 billion in 2012, increasing the cost of repeal to $346 billion and expanding the size of the next scheduled cut to physician payments to 36 percent. Just before Christmas, Congress delayed a 27.4 percent cut, from January 1 to March 1, 2012. That cut is still pending.

Click here to read the letter.

NCMS urges you to please take a moment to send an e-mail to your Senators and Congressman to let them know that it is time to fix the broken SGR. We need a permanent fix.

CapWhiz call for action here. Contact your legislators today.