Family Physicians Tell Their Stories About SGR Impact on Family Medicine, Patient Care

Family physician Jeff Harwood, M.D., of New London, Ohio, has been in private practice for the past 22 years. For much of that time, Harwood has dealt with the ongoing saga of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula -- the perpetual cycle of looming Medicare payment cuts and last-minute congressional interventions required to block impending reductions. For Harwood and thousands of other family physicians, the SGR serves as a constant reminder of a flawed Medicare payment system, a recurring problem that continues to drain time, energy and other resources away from the practice of medicine. "The SGR causes recurring stress, and it is eating up a lot of our political capital," says Harwood, a solo family physician. "It is the same topic year after year, and you get burned out fighting it. It causes you to lose faith in the whole federal legislative agenda. I am frustrated and fed up with having to think about it all of the time."