House Passes Bill to Reform Medicare Payments to Doctors

Press Release

Today, the House of Representatives passed the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act 238-181. Congressman Joe Pitts (PA-16), as Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, helped lead the effort to stabilize payments to doctors working in Medicare. The bill passed with the support of 12 House Democrats.

"We have broad bipartisan agreement on the policy that should govern Medicare payments to doctors and today showed that there is also bipartisan agreement on how we should pay for it," said Pitts. "Doctors who serve our nation's seniors need a stable and predictable payment system. For too long, Congress has avoided the hard work of strengthening Medicare and kicked the can down the road, occasionally just a few months at a time."

Last year, the Health Subcommittee and full Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved a bill to replace the Sustainable Growth Rate, a Medicare formula that would cut payments to doctors by 24 percent if enacted. For ten years, Congress has temporarily delayed these cuts without advancing a long-term solution.

"I wish we would have had more support from across the aisle, but with Senate Democratic leaders refusing to negotiate on how to pay for the bill, it was time to move forward," said Pitts. "I hope passage of the bill brings Senator Reid to the negotiating table. We can work this out, but we have to talk and we have to be willing to compromise."

Video of Pitts' remarks from the House floor is available at: http://youtu.be/buurm-saKSI.

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