AMA reaffirms commitment to fight Medicare pay cuts

Delegates voted to stay the course and continue to press for Medicare reimbursement reform.

By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. Dec. 27, 2004.

Atlanta -- The American Medical Association's Board of Trustees once again has established the prevention of further Medicare rate cuts and replacement of the current payment formula as its second-highest legislative priority for the coming year. Medical liability reform is ranked first.

Board members were backed in their effort by delegates at the AMA Interim Meeting, who approved a resolution renewing the policy that reimbursement reform is a top priority for the Association.

The moves come at the start of what likely will be a pivotal year for physicians treating elderly and disabled patients. Barring congressional action, doctors are projected to receive the first of several consecutive 5% reductions in Medicare reimbursement starting in 2006.

Testimony from delegates was virtually unanimous in calling for a change to the way Medicare does business with doctors.

"It's ineffective; it's inappropriate," said AMA Trustee Cecil B. Wilson, MD, of the reimbursement system. "It paradoxically says that if you have to provide more care for more patients, we'll pay you less."

AMA members overwhelmingly agree with the delegates. In a survey taken prior to the Interim Meeting, 95% of the respondents said fixing the physician payment formula should be a top priority of the Association.

Some attendees described how the problems came to a head when medical inflation continued to rise but the gross domestic product, on which the formula in part is based, started falling off. The combination of the two events triggered payment cuts for 2004 and 2005 that were narrowly averted by Congress.