Congressional leaders are all but predicting the final product will win enough support from both parties to move this year.

Congressional leaders on Thursday released a bipartisan bill to permanently repeal Medicare’s sustainable growth rate formula. Most media analyses note that while there is broad, bipartisan support for a permanent fix, proposed offsets for the deal are likely to encounter some level of resistance from the most liberal and most conservative members on both sides of the aisle. A broader package is still being negotiated, and is expected to be released in the coming days.

The Wall Street Journal (3/20, Hughes, Subscription Publication) reports that House leaders on Thursday unveiled bipartisan legislation to repeal Medicare’s sustainable growth rate formula and put an end to recurring cuts that physicians face under the program. The deal is set for a floor vote next week, even as lawmakers raise concerns about how to pay for the fix, which was previously estimated to cost $200 billion over 10 years.

McClatchy (3/20, Douglas, Subscription Publication) reports that the legislation would repeal the SGR “while instituting an 0.5 percent payment increases for five years while Medicare transitions doctors to a new system that emphasizes quality care over volume of care.” The bill also requires physicians to receive at least 25 percent of their Medicare payments through Alternative Payment Models by 2019-2020. McClatchy adds, however, that the bill “still has some significant hurdles to overcome.” Lawmakers have only figured out how to pay for $70 billion of the roughly $200 billion package, for example, raising concerns among fiscal conservatives.

The Hill (3/20, Sullivan, Lillis) notes that the legislation released Thursday “does not include provisions offsetting the substantial costs.” Those details are still be negotiated, and a broader package is expected to be released in the coming days. Nonetheless, “congressional leaders are all but predicting the final product will win enough support from both parties to move this year.”

The AP (3/20, Fram) says the “uncharacteristic joint effort” by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to reach an agreement underscores “the political victories each sees in finally sweeping the issue off the deck.”

The Hill (3/20, Ferris) reports in a second article that fiscal conservatives are pushing back against the emerging SGR deal. A report from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the proposal would cost at least $400 billion over the next 20 years, “far more than the $170 billion estimate from the Congressional Budget Office on a similar bill last year.”

Meanwhile, several Democrat senators – including Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) – “expressed concern that the tentative House agreement would write restrictions on abortions at community health centers into law,” the AP (3/20, Fram) reports. But aides to Pelosi said the deal’s health center abortion language would expire after two years and represents no change from existing restrictions.

Meanwhile, numerous medical associations and other groups are also weighing in on the SGR deal.

Medscape (3/20) reports in continuing coverage that the American Medical Association and “more than 750 medical societies…urged Boehner in a letter earlier this week to repeal the SGR before April 1.”

Modern Healthcare (3/19, Subscription Publication) reports that the bill introduced Thursday to replace Medicare’s SGR “would also significantly alter federal policy on health information technology.” Under the government’s current EHR incentive program, failure to meet meaningful use requirements will trigger penalties starting this year. But under the SGR bill, “meeting the standards would yield a bonus.” Additionally, the legislation “would also reward remote patient-monitoring and telehealth as clinical practice improvement activities.”

Article from AMA Morning Rounds, 3-20-17.