02/10/2014    Brian Kashan, DPM

Bipartisan Plan Calls for SGR Repeal, 0.5% Increases to 2018; Then Value-based Care

After having just read the information on the SGR
Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization
Act on this site, I can only find myself reading
between the lines and anticipating the worst. Any
time that the government proposes a plan that
seems to have an increase and stability in our
reimbursements, we are in for trouble. Is it naïve to
think that they are truly interested in our
viability and growth versus cost-cutting and
reduction in our services?

The proposed .5% annual update, I assume, is
supposed to be an incentive for us to be happy
with the program. Of course, the penalties we may
endure for not doing other things like PQRS,
meaningful use, etc., will result in 2-6%
reductions for many of us. Also, my bet would be
that the .5% increase is really not an true
increase, but an increase in the decrease…..a ploy
that we all have seen before. “We will increase
your fees .5% after we lower them 6%”.

What concerns me most, is that the two parties who
can’t normally agree on what time of day it is,
would have a bipartisan consensus on this issue
and was designed by three Committees! If that
doesn't concern you, I don’t know what will.

Needless to say, I am a skeptic. I haven’t read
the particulars of the plan, and my guess is that
neither have the members of the 3 committees who
drafted and worked on it. Aha, “we have to pass
this law to see what it says”, I fear for what our
legislators think may be a good thing for us to
jump on board with. I am sure we will be hearing a
lot more about this in the near future.

Brian Kashan, DPM, Baltimore, MD, drbkas@att.net

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