Effort to fix doc's Medicare pay formula gains momentum

A bill now pending in the House that has cleared the Energy and Commerce Committee would repeal the sustainable growth rate -- SGR -- formula and replace it with a more quality-based system.  

NPR: After A Decade, Congress Moves To Fix Doctors' Medicare Pay
But something unusual happened just before Congress left for its summer break. The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 51-0 for a bill that would overhaul the way Medicare pays doctors. The bill would, among other things, repeal something called the sustainable growth rate formula, or SGR, and eventually replace it with a system that would pay doctors based on how healthy they keep their patients (Rovner, 9/6).

Earlier, related KHN coverage: Health On The Hill: 'It's A Fire Sale On The SGR' (9/4).  

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is under attack from a conservative organization for not taking a hardline stance on defunding the health law -

Politico: Tea Party Group's Ad Hits McConnell Over Obamacare
The Senate Conservatives Fund has launched $340,000 in television ads slamming Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for not taking a hardline stance on defunding the health care law. "Obamacare starts in October but Congress can stop its funding," the ad says. "What's Mitch McConnell doing? Nothing. McConnell is the Senate Republican leader, but he refuses to lead on defunding Obamacare. What good is a leader like that?" (Cunningham, 9/5).

CBS: Conservative Group Says McConnell Doing "Nothing" To Stop Obamacare
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is doing "nothing" to stop Obamacare, an influential conservative organization complained in a new TV ad, urging the Senate's top Republican to show "real leadership" by going to the mat in defunding the health care law. "McConnell's the Republican leader, but he refuses to lead on defunding Obamacare," charged the ad from the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF), a well-funded outside group pushing Republican senators to fall in line behind a strategy to undo the law (Miller, 9/5).