Medicare pay cut grows to 5.1%; physicians press for legislative fix

The CMS chief warns of rising volume and intensity of physician services but also stresses the need for more preventive care.

By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. Aug. 28, 2006.

Washington -- When Congress returns from its summer recess in a few days, physicians say it faces a more urgent Medicare reimbursement situation than when it left town.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently announced that the predicted reduction to doctors that will take effect Jan. 1, 2007, is now 5.1%, an increase of nearly half a percentage point over the previous projection of 4.7%. With midterm elections in early November, lawmakers have only a few weeks to reverse this cut before Congress once again departs for final rounds of pre-election day fund raising and campaigning.

Physician groups, including the AMA, are starting to question whether that will be enough time for Congress to tackle what has proven to be a politically and fiscally complex exercise in recent years.

"Seniors who rely on Medicare and the physicians who care for them are stuck wondering if 2007 will be the year access to care erodes as we wait for congressional action to stop the Medicare payment cuts," said Cecil B. Wilson, MD, chair of the AMA Board of Trustees.

The Association wants an overhaul of the entire payment system but at a minimum is calling for legislation that would turn next year's cut into an update that approximates the increased costs to physicians of caring for Medicare patients. CMS puts that figure at roughly 2% for 2007.

If the effort proves too tricky to handle during September and early October, Congress still could ensure that doctors don't face a single day of reduced reimbursements if it returns for a postelection lame-duck session and passes a legislative remedy that meets approval from the White House.