Recently, ASNC joined with more than 70 medical organizations to ask the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to take four specific actions with respect to the sustainable growth rate (SGR) and 2008 physician payment update.  Specifically, the group recommended in a letter to CMS that the agency:

• Apply all of the $1.35 billion Physician Assistance and Quality Initiative Fund to the 2008 conversion factor update
• Reduce the productivity adjustment in the Medicare Economic Index
• Remove the cost of Part B drugs from the SGR calculation retroactive to 1996
• Recognize the costs associated with the National Coverage Decisions in the SGR

Letter to CMS — April 20, 2007