Endocrine Insider
June 3, 2009

The American Medical Association (AMA) and more than 55 medical specialty societies, including The Endocrine Society, have endorsed a set of joint recommendations on eliminating the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula. The SGR is used to determine physician reimbursement for services in the Medicare program and is widely considered to be flawed. In its current form, the formula is responsible for a physician pay cut of 21 percent that is scheduled to take effect in 2010 unless Congress acts to fix the system or delay the cuts. The medical specialties that signed on to the joint recommendations have agreed that the SGR must be replaced this year with a system that accurately reflects physician work and practice costs.  If this replacement cannot be achieved this year, medical specialty societies recommend a transitional approach that would provide payment updates during the next five years while studying alternative financing and payment delivery systems. This approach would completely repeal the SGR by 2015. To read the joint recommendations, click here.

As health reform discussions continue to heat up in Congress this summer, The Endocrine Society has put together its own set of principles on health reform to help outline important issues affecting endocrinologists and their patients. The Society’s Guiding Principles for Health Reform outlines the need to replace the SGR formula and to increase the physician workforce and discusses the importance of preventive care and the treatment of diabetes and obesity, among other topics.  The Endocrine Society will use these principles to frame its discussions with policymakers in Congress and the Administration in the coming weeks.