Doctors play hardball!

Health coverage and access

Medicare cuts will reduce patient access to physicians. In a news analysis, the UPI (6/5, Pierce) reports that "facing down the perennial threat of Medicare physician payment cuts," the American Medical Association "said Monday slashing what doctors are paid would keep many seniors from accessing care." Dr. Cecil Wilson, board chair of the AMA, told reporters, "The physician foundation that Medicare's promise [to seniors] is built on is at risk." The sustainable growth rate formula, which "determines how much Medicare pays doctors for services," calls for a 10 percent cut in 2008. Notably, "for the past five years, Congress has stepped in to overrule the formula, but so far this year, no such bill has been introduced." However, if "that rate reduction goes through, about one in three doctors will decrease the number of Medicare patients they accept, and more than one in four doctors will stop accepting Medicare patients altogether," according to a survey of almost 9,000 physicians conducted by the AMA. Also, "about 8 percent of those surveyed even said they would stop treating seniors on Medicare who are already their patients." HealthDay (6/5) notes the AMA poll in its health highlights section.
AMNews (6/11, Glendinning) adds, "organized medicine wants a permanent end to the current Medicare payment formula for physicians, but it is willing to give Congress some time to move to an alternative system." Nearly 80 organizations, including the AMA, "signed a May 17 letter to every lawmaker outlining recommendations for overhauling the Medicare reimbursement system. The first recommendation calls for a full, immediate repeal of the payment formula that has doctors lined up for a decade of annual cuts." However, the "signatories acknowledge that immediate abolishment of the sustainable growth rate formula might not be possible. If lawmakers cannot enact permanent reform right away, they should establish 2016 as the 'date certain' to complete the transition to a new system that would update physician pay based on increases in the cost of providing care, the organizations write."

-Morning Rounds. AMA members communication. June 5th 2007
-------------------------------
This further confirms what I've always known: that economics run American medicine. People, get real.