The American Academy of Dermatology Association (AADA) is extremely disappointed that Congress has failed to take action to enact physician payment reform and avoid the 27 percent Medicare physician payment cut scheduled to begin Jan. 1, 2012. Ensuring the availability of quality health care for our nation’s seniors and military families should be an issue for which our elected representatives can put aside political differences and work together to finally solve. We are discouraged that the recent legislative attempts to provide a short-term sustainable growth rate fix failed to acknowledge the severity and urgency of the issue.

The current system threatens the long-term viability of the Medicare program and access to quality health care for the country’s increasing senior population. The AADA remains committed to finding a permanent solution and urges Congress to immediately address this problem by enacting a long-term solution repealing the broken SGR formula.