Tell U.S. Senate to Stop Medicare Payment Cuts Now!
[Posted 11/29/07]

The January 1 deadline is looming and the U.S. Senate has yet to act on the Medicare physician payment issues. It is extremely urgent that physicians contact California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and tell them how these cuts will impact their ability to care for senior patients.

If Congress doesn’t stop the cuts, Medicare physician reimbursement in California could drop significantly next year, a combined result of the 10 percent sustainable growth rate (SGR) cut and the geographic payment updates recently announced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill in July that would stop the 10 percent SGR cut in 2008 and the 5 percent cut in 2009, replacing them instead with .5 percent increases in each of those years. That legislation would also update California’s geographic payment localities in 2008 and prevent any geographic payment reductions for three years. The bill provides an unprecedented $22 billion in payment fixes for physicians, without mortgaging this debt into future years.

The Senate is expected to tackle the Medicare issues before the end of the year. Once it does so, the House and Senate Medicare packages will be reconciled by a joint House/Senate conference committee.

Both AMA and CMA have proposed paying for these fixes by equalizing Medicare Advantage health plan rates with fee-for-service rates. Currently, Medicare Advantage plans are paid on average 12 percent more than fee-for-service physicians. Bringing plan rates in line with fee-for-service physician rates could save as much as $50 billion.

Both California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein have been extremely supportive of physicians on this issue. The California senators need to hear from physicians now to help reinforce their efforts with the Senate leadership.

CMA urges all physicians to call, write, or email Senators Feinstein and Boxer and ask them to urge their Senate colleagues to:

• Stop the Medicare physician payment cuts for two years
• Provide a positive physician payment update for two years
• Equalize Medicare Advantage rates with physician rates
• Include a California GPCI fix

Call AMA’s grassroots hotline at 800/833-6354, enter your zip code, and you will be automatically connected with your member of Congress. Please also thank Senators Feinstein and Boxer for their continued support of physicians.

Contact: Elizabeth McNeil, 415/882-3376 or emcneil@cmanet.org.