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Doctors want pre-election payment fix

A Nov. 1 announcement of the 2003 cut could drive physicians from the Medicare program.

By Markian Hawryluk, amednews staff. Oct. 28, 2002.

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Washington -- In the waning days before the November elections, physician groups increased the intensity of the drumbeat for a Medicare physician payment fix.

Medicare physician reimbursement is expected to drop 12% in the next three years if Congress fails to pass legislation to prevent the reductions.

"Unless Congress acts by Nov. 1 when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announces the next round of cuts, more physicians will be forced to make the difficult decision to stop taking new Medicare patients into their practices," said Donald J. Palmisano, MD, president-elect of the American Medical Association.

Physicians already sustained a 5.4% cut in 2002 and face an additional $11 billion reduction in Medicare payments from 2003 to 2005.

At that time, Dr. Palmisano said, physician rates would have dropped to below 1991 levels, despite more than a decade of medical inflation.

A host of surveys conducted this year have found that doctors across the country have reduced the number of new Medicare patients they'll see or closed their doors to them altogether.

"Unfortunately, these access problems are just the tip of the iceberg, with more than two-thirds of the payment cuts yet to come," Dr. Palmisano said at a media briefing on the Medicare situation. "When the AMA asked physicians if they would continue to sign Medicare participation agreements if there were more payment cuts, 42% said they would not."

Physicians must choose by Dec. 31 whether to participate in the program and to accept the Medicare rate as payment in full. But Dr. Palmisano believes many will make that decision as soon as the cut is announced. [...]