Advocacy in Action | TeamHealth's Legislative Action Center

Docs Lobby to Stop 5.1% Cut (10/4/2006)

Last week with the congressional clock quickly winding down, the American Medical Association (AMA) launched a full-court press in the nation’s capital to persuade lawmakers to roll back a scheduled 5.1% cut in Medicare payments to doctors.

The Chicago-based association organized a “fly-in” of several hundred physicians representing at least 40 states to fan out across the Capitol to lobby lawmakers to reverse the cuts that AMA officials say will lead to a sharp decline in the number of physicians willing treat senior citizens. “Patients need action,” said Cecil Wilson, chairman of the AMA’s board of trustees. “We think it’s critical for continued access [by seniors] to care. We have the impression that we have gotten the attention of Congress.”

Two weeks ago, the AMA released a poll that showed about 86% of Americans, when told about the impending cuts, voiced concern that seniors’ access to doctors will suffer if the rollback takes effect as scheduled on January 1, 2007. The AMA is spending about $1.5 million on a national advertising campaign aimed at stopping the cuts.

AMA officials say doctors face a projected 37% reduction in Medicare payments through 2015; this nine-year time frame is also a period in which practice costs are expected to increase by about 22%. Doctors want Congress to scrap a payment formula based on U.S. economic growth, among other factors, and institute a plan to pay physicians for the costs of providing services.

In recent years, proposed cutbacks in payments to doctors have always been modified or stopped altogether by Congress, usually at the last moment. In February, a month after a 4.4% cut took effect, Congress approved a rate freeze at the 2005 level. In the two previous years, physicians received modest Medicare reimbursement increases of about 1.5%.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimates Medicare will pay about $61.5 billion to doctors in the program. If Congress rolls back the proposed cut, officials say that it will cost the federal government about $13 billion over the next five years. Despite those costs, Nathan Deal (R-GA.), a key lawmaker and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, was quoted recently as saying his panel would “do something” by the end of the year to modify the cutbacks.

Chris Riley, the lawmaker’s spokesman, said Deal is “committed to looking at all options, seeing what we can afford and getting to the best solution for doctors and taxpayers.”

The AMA, the nation’s largest doctors’ organization, was joined in its lobbying effort by three other doctors’ groups—the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), and the American Osteopathic Association.

Larry Fields, president of the AAFP, warned that “many [family physicians] may be forced to close their doors to new Medicare patients” if Congress does not reverse the proposed reductions.

Modern Healthcare, September 18, 2006.