AMA cheers new Senate bill to stop Medicare physician cuts

For immediate release
March 14, 2008

Statement attributable to:
Nancy Nielsen, MD
AMA President-elect

"New legislation introduced by Senator Stabenow is the critical ingredient needed to save seniors' access to care as it stops this year's harsh Medicare payment cut to physicians. In three short months Medicare will cut physician payments by 10.6 percent. This cut will be a disaster for Medicare patients as 60 percent of physicians say it will force them to limit the number of new Medicare patients they can treat.

"Senator Stabenow is a steadfast champion for preserving seniors' access to health care, and the AMA applauds her ongoing commitment to solving this important health care access issue. The Senate bill would replace 18 months of Medicare cuts with payment updates that better reflect medical practice cost increases. The year and a half timeframe will inject some stability into the system for seniors and physicians forced to make difficult practice decisions because of planned payment cuts. The timeframe will also give Congress time to begin working on a long-term solution to the broken payment system without having to take action to stop the cuts twice in one year.

"Earlier this week, Congress' own advisory committee on Medicare called for replacing physician payment cuts with updates that reflect medical practice cost increases. Senator Stabenow's bill is an important step toward implementing this recommendation, and we urge Congress to act before the cut begins this July and seniors' access to care is negatively affected."

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For more information, please contact:

Katherine M. Hatwell
Senior Public Information Officer
AMA Media Relations
(202) 789-7419