April 15, 2015 — The U.S. Senate on April 14 passed legislation that permanently repeals Medicare’s sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula in a final vote of 92 to 8, just hours before a 21% cut in physician payments under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule would have been implemented.

Read more here.

New CMS report casts doubt on long-term value of doc fix legislation.  The Senate is expected today to take up several amendments to a bill that includes a provision to permanently repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR), a measure passed late last month by the House. However, a new report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services adds to the chorus of reservations in recent weeks about the agreement hailed as a rare bipartisan solution.

Read more here. 

After a permanent repeal of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula passed the House of Representatives in late March, the measure’s backers in the Senate work to quell a potential revolt from Senate conservatives over its initial $214 billion price tag, according to Reuters. 

Read more here.