CBO Sets Price Tag For Delaying Scheduled Medicare Physician Payment Cuts: $271 Billion

Medpage Today: CBO: Delays In SGR Cuts To Cost $271 Billion
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released updated figures on the cost of repealing -- or continuing to override -- the cuts doctors are scheduled to receive under Medicare's Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) reimbursement formula. The fresh numbers give Washington lawmakers a better idea of the effect of changes they could make later this year to the SGR cuts. Physician reimbursements are scheduled to drop by 27% next year unless Congress acts, the CBO noted in the report. Every year since 2003, Congress has acted to override the SGR cuts by either maintaining or increasing payments when they were scheduled to drop. The CBO estimates that if cuts are blocked and payments sustained at current rates from now through 2022, it would cost an additional $271 billion from 2013 to 2022. Resetting payments to 2011 levels, only to increase them annually at 2% plus however much the gross domestic product (GDP) grows, would cost an additional $376.6 billion (Pittman, 8/1).