Grinding to a Halt

GRINDING TO A HALT Recently, there's been some talk in Washington about automatic spending cuts. In theory it's a good idea, but before we start cranking out the praise, let's take a moment to remember Congress' history of throwing wrenches into its own "automatic" mechanisms. In 1997, Congress enacted the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula to automatically cut the growth in Medicare payments to physicians. However, these cuts only went into effect for one year; in every year since, Congress has increased those payments. Automatic? Hardly. A CUT AND SEVERAL RAISES; A HISTORY OF MEDICARE REIMBURSEMENTS FOR PHYSICIANS 1.4% 1.5% 1.5% 1.1% 2.2%* 2% .5%* 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 (THE ONE YEAR IT WORKED) 4.8% Scheduled cut overridden and Scheduled cut overridden; payments Payments cut as scheduled payments raised instead frozen at previous year's level Sources: Congressional Research Service, Congressional Quarterly *Jan-Jun had a .5% increase while Jul-Dec had a .5% increase from the 2007 level ** Jan-May had a 0% increase while Jun-Dec had a 2.2% increase