Supercommittee failure leaves 27.4 percent Medicare payment cut in place

With the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction failing to reach agreement on a deficit-reduction proposal, physicians still face a 27.4 percent cut in Medicare physician payments scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. Options for SGR relief outside of the supercommittee process have ranged from short-term patches of a year or two to longer-term relief that provides for transition to a new Medicare physician payment system. Current law stipulated that across-the-board cuts totaling $1.2 trillion will be imposed in 2013 if the supercommittee fails to achieve this targeted amount.