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Medicare Payment Action Kit

On June 24, 2010, Congress passed a six-month Medicare patch providing a 2.2 percent positive update and a temporary reprieve for seniors and the physicians who care for them. In December, without action by Congress, the Medicare physician payment cut will be a whopping 23 percent, increasing to nearly 30 percent in January 2011.  

With baby boomers beginning to enter into Medicare in just six months, the physician payment problem must be addressed or these new Medicare patients won’t be able to find a doctor to treat them. Congress must act to replace the broken physician payment system before the cost to fix it grows even larger. Call your members of Congress at (800) 833-6354 and demand they fix the problem once and for all.

How Medicare cuts threaten access to care in your state

Select your state below to see how the looming Medicare cuts will effect access to care. States marked with an asterisk have been designated “Access Hot Spots”. Patients in these states already face problems getting physician care, and the problem will get worse unless Congress repeals the broken Medicare physician payment formula.

Alabama* Indiana* Nebraska South Carolina*
Alaska Iowa Nevada South Dakota
Arizona Kansas New Hampshire Tennessee*
Arkansas* Kentucky* New Jersey Texas*
California Louisiana* New Mexico* Utah
Colorado Maine New York Vermont
Connecticut Maryland North Carolina* Virginia
Delaware Massachusetts* North Dakota* Washington
Florida* Michigan Ohio Washington, DC*
Georgia* Minnesota Oklahoma* West Virginia*
Hawaii Mississippi* Oregon Wisconsin
Idaho* Missouri Pennsylvania Wyoming*
Illinois Montana* Rhode Island  

 

AMA information & recommendations
Medicare physician payment advocacy documents
Medicare physician payment background material
Congressional testimony and correspondence

Letter to Sen. Kyl commending introduction of Senate Amendment 4373 re: SGR, June 22, 2010

Letter to Sens. Reid and McConnell re: H.R. 4691, Temporary Extension Act of 2010, March 4, 2010

Letter to entire House and Senate re: SGR Permanent Fix, February 22, 2010

AMA/ACP/ACS letter to Georgia Senators Chambliss and Isakson re: TRICARE/SGR, February 15, 2010

Joint AMA/AARP letter to Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi urging repeal of the SGR, January 21, 2010

Sign-on letter to Congress re: urgent permanent repeal of Medicare SGR formula, December 15, 2009

AMA and AARP joint letter supporting H.R. 3961, the "Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act," November 16, 2009

Sign-on letter to full House - H.R. 3961, the "Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act," November 13, 2009

Letter urging support for concurrent passage of H.R. 3962 and H.R. 3961, November 5, 2009

Letter to full Senate urging support of S. 1776, Stabenow bill to repeal the SGR, October 16, 2009

Sign-on letter to full Senate advocating elimination of the SGR, September 18, 2009

Sign-on letter to Congressional Budget Resolution Conferees urging support of inclusion of a provision to facilitate replacement of the SGR, April 13, 2009

Sign-on letter to Chairman Spratt, House Budget Committee, on Rebasing Medicare Physician Payment, March 23, 2009

AMA Chair Joseph Heyman's testimony to House Small Business Committee on permanent Medicare physician payment reform March 18, 2009

AMA President Nancy Nielsen's testimony to Congress on Medicare physician payment reform Sept. 11, 2008

AMA letter to representatives in support of H.R.6331

AMA letter to senators in support of H.R.6331