WASHINGTON – Tonight, U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) voted in favor of legislation to repeal the broken Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) that passed the Senate 92-8 with strong, bipartisan support. More than a decade of short-term “SGR patches” have frustrated health care providers, threatened access for Medicare beneficiaries, and created budgetary problems for Congress. During this time, Congress has allocated nearly $150 billion on temporary patches that did not address the fundamental problems with the SGR. Sen. Moran did not support the formula when it was created and has long urged Congress to permanently repeal and replace the flawed SGR.

“For more than a decade, the broken SGR formula has frustrated health care providers, threatened access for Medicare beneficiaries, and created budgetary dilemmas for Congress,” Sen. Moran said. “This especially jeopardizes patients’ access to health care in Kansas where our hospitals, physicians, and other medical professionals care for an increasingly aging population across a wide area. The reality is patient care suffers when providers are forced to endure an exasperating wait-and-see game every few months to find out what amount they will be reimbursed for the care they provide. It is good that Congress has finally come together permanently address this issue.”

In late March, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act, with a bipartisan vote of 392-37. The legislation now heads to the President’s desk for his signature.

Sen. Moran recently spoke on the Senate floor about the urgent need to permanently repeal and replace the SGR formula. Click here to view his remarks.

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