Murphy, Activists Celebrate Victory for Connecticut’s Elderly, Youth and Medical Communities

Bipartisan legislation signed into law will replace SGR formula, avoid a 21% cut in Medicare rates, provide funding to health centers and extend funding for Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Report by Paula Antolini
April 27, 2015 8:12AM EDT

Murphy, Activists Celebrate Victory for Connecticut’s Elderly, Youth and Medical Communities

Bipartisan legislation signed into law will replace SGR formula, avoid a 21% cut in Medicare rates, provide funding to health centers and extend funding for Children’s Health Insurance Program

**TODAY, April 27th at 10am in Hartford**

HARTFORD — Today, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) will be joined by representatives from the CT Voices for Children, the Connecticut State Medical Society, the Connecticut Association of Community Health Centers, as well as medical professionals and other advocates to celebrate the recent enactment of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, otherwise known as the “permanent doc fix.” This major, bipartisan legislative achievement repeals the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) for physician reimbursement under Medicare, and extends funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and community health centers nationwide. During the event, Murphy will highlight the importance of the SGR repeal to ensuring that physicians continue to provide care to Connecticut’s seniors and Medicare beneficiaries who were previously at risk of losing the ability to receive care from their doctor of choice.

As a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Murphy has strongly supported the decade-long effort to pass these provisions into law. Over the last 12 years, the SGR has created anxiety about potential cuts to physician reimbursement, but on April 16, 2015, President Obama signed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act into law. The legislation staved off a 21% cut in payments to doctors, and ended years of instability for physicians who care for seniors and Medicare beneficiaries. The legislation also extends CHIP – which provides low-cost health coverage to 8.1 million children in the United States – by two years, and secures $7.2 billion in funding to community health centers and the National Health Service Corps.

WHAT: Murphy and advocates celebrate SGR repeal and extension of Children’s Health Insurance Program

WHEN: Monday, April 27th at 10:00 a.m.

WHERE: Saint Francis Hospital, Patient Care Tower Rotunda, Main Entrance, 114 Woodland Street, Hartford, Connecticut

WHO: U.S. Senator Chris Murphy; Chris Dadlez, President, Saint Francis Hospital; Dr. John Rodis, Exec. VP, COO, Saint Francis Hospital; Ken Ferrucci, Connecticut State Medical Society; Matt Katz, CEO/EVP CT Medical Society; Dr. Bob Russo, President, CT State Medical Society; Deb Polun, CT Association of Community Health Centers; Kathy Yaccavone, Southwest Community Health Center; Ellen Shemitz, Executive Director, CT Voices for Children; Jane Baird, Director of Government Relations, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.

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