The Society's Washington staff advocates for members on legislation regarding quality improvement, reimbursement issues, pay-for-performance and more.

NEW! Medicare Payments for 2008: On December 29, President Bush signed legislation to provide a six-month reprieve from a scheduled 10.1% cut in Medicare physician payments that would have occurred on January 1, 2008, caused by the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula, the mechanism used to determine the annual update to Medicare physician payments.

The legislation will only prevent the Medicare payment reduction through June 30, 2008. On July 1, 2008, a 10.6% reimbursement reduction will take effect for all Medicare patients. The SGR will cause a further 6% payment reduction on January 1, 2009. Medicare payment cuts to all physicians under Medicare will total 40% by 2016 unless the SGR formula is repealed by Congress. Click here to urge your Congressman to repeal the SGR before July 1!