WASHINGTON — House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander Levin, D-Mich., introduced a bill March 16 that would again delay a 21 percent cut in Medicare physician payments.
Called the Continuing Extension Act of 2010 (H.R. 4213), the bill would head off the whopping reimbursement cut until April 30.
The cut was originally scheduled to be implemented Jan. 1, 2010, but has been pushed back in a series of congressional delays. Presently, the docs' pay has been frozen until the end of March.
Earlier this month, the Senate approved a delay of the cut until Oct. 1. But according to press reports, the House won't act on its bill before April 1, so another delay was needed to keep the cut from taking effect.
The American Medical Association and other physician groups have been urging Congress to revise Medicare's current "sustainable growth rate," or SGR, payment formula — which has resulted in annual pay decreases for physicians — in favor of a permanent fix.
Following the Senate's latest action, J. James Rohack, MD, president of the American Medical Association, issued a statement with the following caution:
"Physicians cannot keep their practice doors open to all Medicare patients without clear direction from Congress on Medicare payment rates. Already, Medicare payment rates are far below the costs of providing patient care, and physicians are left wondering how they can continue to run a medical practice if Congress does not inject security and stability into the Medicare program.
"Short-term actions are the wrong answer to a long-term problem. These band-aid fixes have only served to increase the size of the cuts and the cost of reform … It's time to fix the formula and ensure that seniors can count on Medicare now and for years to come."
Physicians dropping out of Medicare could be only part of the problem for Congress and the Obama administration.
According to a survey that hit the headlines Tuesday as reported by CNSNews.com, almost a third of the nation's physicians could leave their practices altogether if current versions of health care reform become law.
The survey, conducted by medical recruiter The Medicus Firm and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed 29 percent of the nearly 1,200 participating physicians said they would either quit the medical profession or retire early if current health reform legislation becomes law. Of primary care physicians (family medicine and internal medicine) in the survey, 46 percent said the passing of health reform "will either force them out of medicine or make them want to leave medicine."