Release: Energy and Commerce Committee Approves SGR Bill

The following statement was issued by the American Medical Group Association on July 31, 2013:

AMGA was present this morning as the House Energy & Commerce Committee advanced their Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) repeal bill H.R. 2810, the Medicare Patient Access and Quality Improvement Act of 2013, by a roll call vote of 51-0. The manager’s amendment offered by Representatives Michael Burgess (R-TX) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ) also passed by voice vote. The bill will now have to be taken up by the House Ways & Means Committee, in collaboration with Energy & Commerce, where it is expected that a pay-for will be decided upon and finally added to the legislation. As of today, there has been no announcement as to when the bill will be sent to the House floor.

The manager’s amendment made several technical changes to “better organize the legislative language,” according to Representative Burgess. The amendment also included the addition of nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants as those who qualify for care coordination bonuses, a requirement that the Secretary of Health and Human Services make publicly available the data used to establish the multiple procedure payment reduction policy to the professional component of imaging services, several changes to the alternative payment model section of the bill including additional safeguards for those proposing new models, in addition to a mandated report to Congress on the extent to which clinical decision support mechanisms could be used to further Medicare program objectives.

The bill language can be found here: http://energycommerce.house.gov/sgr.