Lawmakers in Congress are working to prevent planned Medicare payment cuts to physicians, much to the relief of a host of healthcare organizations.
Republicans and Democrats have sponsored a bill to avoid Medicare’s scheduled reduction in physician payments for 2025. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have proposed a 2.8% cut in payments to doctors next year. This despite the annual inflation rate of 2-5% annually.The AMA said that Medicare payment rates have dropped 29% over the past 20 years, when including the higher costs of running practices. Doctors and their advocacy groups have said the continued cuts in recent years could hurt access to care, as physicians leave the profession or they opt not to accept Medicare patients.
On Tuesday, lawmakers introduced the legislation, dubbed the Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act. U.S. Reps. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., and Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., are the prime sponsors, but other lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, are backing the measure.
In addition to averting the cuts, the legislation would give doctors increases in payments that are equivalent to half the Medicare Economic Index, which reflects changes in the annual operating costs for physicians.
“Medical inflation is much higher and the cost of seeing patients continues to rise,” Murphy said. “Unfortunately, reimbursements continue to decline, putting immense pressure on doctors to retire, close their practices, forgo seeing new Medicare patients, or seek a less efficient employment position.
Many physicians merged with other physicians or agreed to be purchased by venture capitalists, supposedly improving effficiency having a larger group, and consolidating management. None of this proved to be true, and the downward spiral has continued.
This bipartisan legislation would stop yet another year of reimbursement cuts, give them a slight inflationary adjustment, and protect Medicare for physicians and patients alike."
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