President Obama signed H.R. 4302, the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, legislation that would provide a 1-year freeze in Medicare physician payments and prevent the 24% cut from being implemented on April 1. The legislation, which was opposed by AGA and almost the entire medical community, passed the House by voice vote and by a vote of 64-35 in the Senate. AGA opposed this temporary patch since it does nothing to fix the underlying problem with the Medicare physician payment system – it’s a temporary solution that finances the fix on the backs of specialty medicine.
AGA is extremely disappointed that Congress passed a patch since we were so close to finally enacting a permanent solution to the SGR. This action jeopardizes the chances of Congress enacting a long-term solution, and also continues to put specialties like gastroenterology in jeopardy by expanding the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid’s existing authority to identify misvalued codes. Since GI has already been resurveyed by CMS for both upper and lower procedures, we remain concerned that nothing in this legislation protects us from being targeted again by the agency.
AGA and the entire GI community will continue to advocate on behalf of gastroenterology to ensure that it is adequately compensated commensurate with the value that we provide to patients with digestive diseases
