The Alliance of Specialty Medicine sent a letter of opposition to the Medicare SGR Patch and Extenders Legislation, as posted March 25, 2014 on docs.house.gov.
In addition to being unwilling to support another short term patch, the Alliance opposes a provision in the March 25th bill to address misvalued codes used under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. The Alliance had earlier (in a letter, dated February 14th, in support for the SGR repeal in H.R. 4015), specifically expressed concerns about the misvalued code provisions in bill, particularly since the work to identify potentially misvalued services is ongoing through the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Relative Value System Update Committee (RUC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The vast majority of physician services have been reviewed, resurveyed, and revalued, over the course of the last few years. We do not believe this provision is necessary and therefore urged its elimination. The March 25th bill instead intensifies this provision and therefore the Alliance must oppose the bill.