--- title: "Psych News Alert: Budget Agreement Includes Physicians' Medicare Fees" description: Andriy Solovyov/Shutterstock The August 1 down-to-the-wire agreement to raise the federal debt limit to avoid default addresses the contenti... image: https://alert.psychnews.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/stethoscope_11429608-Jun-24-2025-09-25-23-1662-PM.jpg --- 8/2/11 12:00 AM # Budget Agreement Includes Physicians' Medicare Fees ![Picture of Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Psych%20News%20Email%20Banners/PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png?width=50&name=PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png) [ Psychiatric News Alert ](https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert) Share: [facebook-f icon ](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https://alert.psychnews.org/2011/08/budget-agreement-includes-physicians.html) [linkedin-in icon ](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://alert.psychnews.org/2011/08/budget-agreement-includes-physicians.html) [Twitter icon ](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://alert.psychnews.org/2011/08/budget-agreement-includes-physicians.html) [pinterest-p icon ](http://pinterest.com/pin/create/link/?url=https://alert.psychnews.org/2011/08/budget-agreement-includes-physicians.html) [envelope icon ](mailto:?body=https://alert.psychnews.org/2011/08/budget-agreement-includes-physicians.html) | [![](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/stethoscope_11429608-Jun-24-2025-09-25-21-1540-PM.jpg?height=200&name=stethoscope_11429608-Jun-24-2025-09-25-21-1540-PM.jpg)](https://alert.psychnews.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/stethoscope_11429608-Jun-24-2025-09-25-22-0397-PM.jpg) | | --- | | Andriy Solovyov/Shutterstock | The August 1 down-to-the-wire agreement to raise the federal debt limit to avoid default addresses the contentious issue of the reimbursement physicians will recieve for treatment of patients in the Medicare program. With psychiatrists and other physicians facing a mandated Medicare fee cut of 21 percent, delayed several times this year by Congress, APA, the AMA, and other physician groups have been vociferous in calling for a major reworking of the formula determining how physicians are reimbursed. The new agreement explicitly limits Medicare fee cuts to 2 percent annually, but fails to address calls for reforming or repealing the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula that sets future physician reimbursement levels. The agreement also fails to indicate the fate of Medicare funding for graduate medical education, whose existence has been threatened by budget hawks looking for multitrillion-dollar budget savings. *Psychiatric News* has provided extensive coverage of physicians's efforts to undo the SGR and of other issues related to Medicare reimbursement. Read more at [http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/46/6/4.1.full](http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/46/6/4.1.full) and [http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/46/8/6.2.full](http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/46/8/6.2.full) . [Medicare](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/medicare), [physician reimbursement](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/physician-reimbursement), [SGR](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/sgr) ## Related posts [![](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Piel-Jun-24-2025-03-49-13-5737-PM.gif?height=200&name=Piel-Jun-24-2025-03-49-13-5737-PM.gif) ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2014/06/ama-house-calls-for-protocols-for-post.html) ## [AMA House Calls for Protocols for Post-'Taser' Medical Assessments](https://alert.psychnews.org/2014/06/ama-house-calls-for-protocols-for-post.html) ![Picture of Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Psych%20News%20Email%20Banners/PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png?width=50&name=PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png) [Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert) 6/11/14 12:00 AM The AMA House of Delegates approved a resolution this week calling on the AMA and other... [ Read more ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2014/06/ama-house-calls-for-protocols-for-post.html) [![](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/us_department_of_justice_iStock-828671946_small-Jun-24-2025-06-37-46-5976-PM.jpg?height=200&name=us_department_of_justice_iStock-828671946_small-Jun-24-2025-06-37-46-5976-PM.jpg) ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2018/06/apa-calls-on-administration-to-defend.html) [Altha Stewart](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/altha-stewart), [ACA](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/aca), [individual mandate](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/individual-mandate), [pre-existing conditions](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/pre-existing-conditions) ## [APA Calls on Administration to Defend Patient Protections in ACA](https://alert.psychnews.org/2018/06/apa-calls-on-administration-to-defend.html) ![Picture of Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Psych%20News%20Email%20Banners/PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png?width=50&name=PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png) [Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert) 6/11/18 12:00 AM APA has strongly condemned the recent decision by the Department of Justice to not defend the... [ Read more ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2018/06/apa-calls-on-administration-to-defend.html) [![](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/older-patient-evaluation-iStock-1094819956-Jun-24-2025-06-17-25-1838-PM.jpg?height=200&name=older-patient-evaluation-iStock-1094819956-Jun-24-2025-06-17-25-1838-PM.jpg) ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2023/03/postoperative-delirium-associated-with.html) [cognitive decline](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/cognitive-decline), [surgery](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/surgery), [language](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/language), [JAMA Internal Medicine](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/jama-internal-medicine), [attention](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/attention), [delirium](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/delirium), [postoperative](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/postoperative), [memory](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/memory) ## [Postoperative Delirium Associated With Accelerated Cognitive Decline, Study Finds](https://alert.psychnews.org/2023/03/postoperative-delirium-associated-with.html) ![Picture of Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Psych%20News%20Email%20Banners/PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png?width=50&name=PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png) [Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert) 3/20/23 12:00 AM [ Read more ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2023/03/postoperative-delirium-associated-with.html) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Psychiatric News Alert", "url" : "https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert" }, "dateModified" : "2025-06-24T21:30:33.080Z", "datePublished" : "2011-08-02T04:00:00.000Z", "headline" : "Psych News Alert: Budget Agreement Includes Physicians' Medicare Fees", "image" : [ "https://alert.psychnews.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/stethoscope_11429608-Jun-24-2025-09-25-23-1662-PM.jpg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://alert.psychnews.org/2011/08/budget-agreement-includes-physicians.html", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://alert.psychnews.org/hubfs/PN-Blue-Box.jpg" } } } ```