The CBO has now issued its estimate for the “doc fix” legislation at $144 billion over the next 10 years.  At the moment, there is no proposal on the table to fund this $144 billion and while an unpopular legislative proposal resolving the issue could be proposed and could pass in the lame duck session, there is little time for such a proposal.

In the new Congress, while it will be Republican controlled, and there is clearly an appetite to correct the sustainable growth rate issue as it applies to physicians, it will not be any easier to find a solution to this $144 billion price tag and the new Congress will have until March 31, with all of the other items on its agenda, to resolve the issue or to kick it down the road either for another short period of time or for another year.