Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) produced what could turn into a major miracle in Congress this week with the introduction of S. 1776. The bill would eliminate the (un)Sustainable Growth Rate (SGRrrr*) formula for the next 10 years, without creating the budgetary impact of $245 billion of accumulated debt associated with the formula that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) requires to ‘pay for it.’ In essence, Stabenow would consider paying off the SGRrrr debt by making it a contribution to the multi-trillion national debt, not a 2010-2020 budget cost. The bill thus would eliminate the Pay-Go rule. Although Congress has taken similar actions for the Stimulus and to pay off part of the Alternative Minimum Tax hit, recognize that this is done VERY rarely.

The House attempted to do something similar to get rid of the SGRrrr in HR 3200, which prompted the AMA and American Academy of Family Physicians to support the entire bill; but including the SGR elimination as part of health care reform causes the CBO to chalk up the debt cost as part of the cost of reform. S. 1776 is a better and parallel approach.

ACC was called by Sens. Reid and Baucus this week and asked to support this radical move, which Mr. Reid (D-NV.), Mr. Dodd (D-CT.) and Mr. Baucus (D-MT) also believe is necessary. No problem getting our support -- we’ve been trying to get rid of this nightmare for 10 years. Action on S. 1776 will of necessity have to move with lightening speed. It will move fast, or die fast. Getting this albatross off our necks would be a major plus for all of medicine.

If S. 1776 doesn’t pass, Congress will definitely kick the SGRrrr can down the road and propose another one-year band aid patch on it as they do every year.

Again, the AMA deserves great credit for delivering on this SGRrrr issue if it happens. To underscore how much momentum is behind it, AARP is teaming up with AMA to get S. 1776 enacted and is contributing 50 percent of the advertising cost to a major multi-million national TV campaign. We need our constituency to call your Senate office and ask them to vote YES on S. 1776 this coming week to promote security and stability in seniors’ access to Medicare physician services.

(* note  --“SGRrrr,” for those of you new to the Blog, just adds a ‘growl’ to SGR)

*** Image from Flickr (YardSale). ***