Monday, for the 17th time in 11 years, the U.S. Senate voted to approve what’s come to be called a “doc fix,” a bill to set doctors’ Medicare reimbursement fees for the year. The House of Representatives approved an identical measure Thursday.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Portland, opposed the fix.

Wyden, the newly minted chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, wants a permanent solution to the Medicare payment problem. It’s a problem he’s been working to fix for at least the last few years.

In late 2011 he teamed up with conservative Republican Rep. Paul Ryan to create a plan. It went nowhere. Last year, in January, he tried again without luck; then early this year he unveiled a third proposal that so far has not been acted on.

Whether or not Wyden’s proposals are the right answer, the lack of debate about them or this issue is unfortunate. “Doc fix” legislation merely delays, yet again, cuts that were written into a 1997 reimbursement formula. Those cuts were aimed at controlling Medicare costs, but the delays themselves meant physicians would have seen a 24 percent drop in their reimbursement rates this year.

Meanwhile, the fix has cost taxpayers something more than $150 billion over the years. Moreover, it perpetuates a system that reimburses physicians on a fee-for-service basis — for ordering more tests and more visits rather than for providing better care, according to the Kaiser Health Foundation.

Wyden was unable to persuade senators to take the time to find a permanent solution to the problem, and given the deadline — the old measure expired Monday night — that’s no real surprise. But the extension may actually work in favor of real reform of the system.

Wyden offers one proposal and has offered others. One reform measure, a bipartisan effort, was approved in mid March by the full House, though in its current form it may not get far in the Senate. And, there may be still other ideas worth considering.

Congress now has a year to sort things out and actually fix the Medicare problem rather than simply putting it off for next year’s members to tackle.