Medicare Condition Critical: Please Call Your Representatives Today
[Posted 12/13/07]

Congressional negotiations on Medicare are at a crossroads. The situation remains very fluid with potential outcomes for California physicians ranging from good to very bad.

• Payments to physicians may be cut by 10 percent, or increased.
• Geographic payment problems may or may not be fixed.
• The reforms might be paid for by equalizing physician rates with Medicare Advantage rates (as CMA advocates) or by mortgaging the debt into future years, leaving physicians facing even greater SGR cuts next year and beyond.

The Senate Democratic and House Democratic leaders are meeting over the next several days to craft a new agreement to stop the payment cuts to physicians and to address the other issues. If they can get an agreement, the vote will likely be next week (the week of December 17).

Your members of Congress need to hear from you on these issues NOW. Please call before Tuesday, December 18, to maximize your impact on this debate. Call AMA’s toll-free grassroots hotline at 800/833-6354 to be patched through to your Representative.

Tell your Representatives that time is running out and urge them to:

• Stop the 10 percent payment cut.
• Provide a payment increase.
• Update the geographic payment localities.
• Fund these reforms by equalizing Medicare Advantage rates with physician rates, not by increasing the physician SGR cuts in future years.

tell them how these cuts will impact their ability to care for senior patients. Make sure that physicians are heard in Congress. Call today!

Also, ask your patients to call AMA’s grassroots patients hotline at 888/434-6200. CMA’s “Help Preserve the Promise of Medicare” posters are available for download. Put one up in your office today.

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