Michael Burgess: “I rise today to talk about the so-called doc fix that is contained within the bill. But first I think a little history…”

“I rise today to talk about the so-called doc fix that is contained within the bill. But first I think a little history is in order. Quoting from a paper by Dr. John Shay from December of 2006: Originally, Medicare doctors were reimbursed under what is called the customary prevailing rate, the CPR. Congress thought that spent too much money, so in 1989 in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act--sound familiar?--they enacted what was called the relative value payment system, RVRPS. That was supposed to hold down payments. In between, we had something called the Medicare economic index that based doctor pay on the cost-of-living adjustment. None of these things satisfied Congress in holding down costs, so in 1992, remember, George Bush was not President in 1992, George W. Bush was not President in 1992, although we like to blame things on the previous administration; the Congress was controlled by Democrats, and they enacted the volume performance standard, or VPS, which was in fact the forerunner of today's SGR. This is not a problem that began in the last administration. This is in fact a problem that was set in motion by administrative pricing when Medicare was enacted back in 1965.”