Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.
October 20, 2009 - The American College of Radiology is urging the medical community to support a bill (S. 1776) to repeal the Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula and erase the $240 billion debt associated with it.
Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan has introduced the bill that if it is defeated, the current scheduled 22 percent reduction in Medicare payments may go into effect Jan. 1, 2010.
The Senate will be holding a series of votes the week of October 19 that will determine whether this legislation moves forward. Should
In a statement on its Web site (www.acr.org), the College states:
"Since the repeal of the SGR and a yet-to-be developed new payment formula would benefit all physicians, the ACR is asking that you please call your senators today to request their vote in support of Sen. Stabenow’s bill, S. 1776. The American Medical Association has drafted background documents on this issue for your reference."
The documents are available on the AMA site, under the “S. 1776 Action Kit.”
"This may be the only opportunity to repeal the SGR this year during the health care reform debate and we need to present a united physician community to the Congress," states the ACR site.
Starting today, October 20, 2009, The ACR asks clinicians to call their Senators’ offices in Washington, D.C., through the ACR Political Action Network at 800-327-5423, and use the ACR’s Political Action Network 800# between 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. EST.
For any questions, the ACR asks the medical community to contact Ariel Gonazalez at [email protected].
For more information: www.acr.org