The clock is winding down for Congress to pass Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula reform legislation before the latest temporary spending patch expires at the end of the month and doctors again face steep cut in Medicare physician fee schedule (MPFS) payments.  While there had been high hopes for a permanent reform once key committee leaders reached agreement on a bipartisan, bicameral SGR reform bill, financing the roughly $180 billion package (including funding for various expiring Medicare provisions) has been the sticking point. When the House of Representatives approved its version of the bill on March 14 (H.R. 4015), it relied on savings attributed to repeal of the ACA individual insurance mandate to finance the bill – a proposal which drew a veto threat from the Administration and which will not be considered by the Senate. On the other hand, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Wyden has suggested offsetting the costs by capturing savings from “overseas contingency operations” funds (future war spending that is not expected to be expended) or not offsetting the costs – neither of which would pass the House.  Given this impasse, lawmakers are exploring another temporary fix, potentially through the end of 2014, with offsets for the smaller package likely to come from reductions in other Medicare spending. If Congress does not reach an agreement, MPFS payments will be subject to an approximate 24% cut on April 1, 2014 (although CMS announced in the final MPFS rule the conversion factor would be reduced by 20.1%, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that given other adjustments in the rule, the effective update to physician payments for 2014 will be a reduction of 23.7% if the rule goes into effect).