WASHINGTON - Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., issued the following statement on the House proposal to “patch" the Medicare physician payment formula for one year.
“We have a choice. We can either continue on with the status quo in Medicare by enacting a 17th patch - reinforcing a flawed payment formula that jeopardizes seniors’ access to their doctors, pits provider groups against each other, and fails to actually improve the Medicare program.
Or, we can end the budget fiction that is the SGR, provide certainty to seniors and their doctors, and get the ball moving on bipartisan Medicare reforms - paying for value, managing chronic illness, increasing data transparency, and finally moving away from fee-for-service payment that got us into this mess.
My choice is to end the status quo in Medicare by permanently repealing and replacing the SGR. There is no reason to wait."
