In December 2006, physicians and their staff members took a break from their holiday preparations to watch Congress in its final days of the session, an activity that has become an annual ritual. As in so many previous years, physician fees were slated for a decrease because of a calculation in the Medicare law known as the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR). As in so many previous years, Congress halted the pay cut but did not address the underlying SGR calculation. In order to keep physician fees from decreasing between 4% and 5%, Congress left the same conversion factor in 2007 as was in place in 2006. However, work relative value units (RVUs) changed significantly, and many codes will have lower reimbursement in 2007 than in 2006 because of the change in work RVUs, despite the unchanged conversion factor.
