House leaders say they’re close to fixing hated Medicare funding formula

Congressional leaders released a bipartisan bill Thursday to scrap an outdated Medicare payment formula and replace it with a system that’s more predictable for doctors and rewards the quality — not quantity — of care they provide.

The highly anticipated plan would repeal what’s known as the Sustainable Growth Rate, which lawmakers override every year with a so-called “doc fix” even when it calls for a cut.

Many lawmakers are sick of overriding the formula, which is tied to growth in the gross domestic product and has been ignored 17 times.

“Those yearly fixes aren’t good for anybody,” said Rep. Matt Salmon, Arizona Republican, who called the patches “intellectually dishonest.”

“Let’s just admit to the American people that it’s been a facade the whole time and just fix it,” he said.

Thursday’s announcement resurrects a plan that neared passage in the last Congress but couldn’t make it to the finish line.

“I’ve been committed to finding a permanent solution to this problem,” House Speaker John A. Boehner told reporters at his weekly press conference.

Lawmakers squabbling over their 2016 budgets face an end-of-month deadline to avert a 21-percent cut to doctors’ Medicare payments. If they fail to address it, doctors will leave the program.

The main sticking point is coming up with $177 billion over the next decade to abandon the formula while holding rates constant.

“Work continues toward an agreement to put this plan into place as well as make reforms to strengthen Medicare and extend vital health provisions and the Children’s Health Insurance Program,” congressional leaders said in their announcement.

Adding to the deficit through the plan is sure to irk deficit hawks who already think Washington is drowning in red ink.

Already, some conservatives have questioned why Mr. Boehner set to work with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi before his own caucus.

“The door opened, and I decided to walk in it, simple as that,” Mr. Boehner said Thursday.