Griffin: Ways and Means Committee Unanimously Passes Framework for a Permanent SGR Fix

Press Release

Congressman Tim Griffin (AR-02), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, issued the following statement after the House Ways and Means Committee unanimously passed an Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute to H.R. 2810, the Medicare Patient Access and Quality Improvement Act of 2013, and the full House passed a temporary Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) patch pending long-term reform:

"Everyone agrees that Medicare's current SGR hurts doctors and threatens seniors' access to quality health care and must be reformed, and I am proud of the hard, bipartisan work of the Members of the Ways and Means Committee, who unanimously passed a framework for reform that permanently repeals and replaces the SGR framework. Also, tonight's vote to patch SGR for three months will give us time to finalize our permanent reforms."

On December 12, the House Ways and Means Committee marked up an Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute to the Medicare Patient Access and Quality Improvement Act of 2013 (H.R. 2810), which permanently repeals the SGR and replaces it with a fair and stable system of Medicare physician payments that promotes quality over volume.

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