Organized medicine delivers plan to Congress on Medicare pay reform

Physician associations chart out an incremental Medicare reform option in case an immediate repeal of the formula isn't possible.

By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. June 11, 2007.

Washington -- Organized medicine wants a permanent end to the current Medicare payment formula for physicians, but it is willing to give Congress some time to move to an alternative system.

Nearly 80 organizations representing a wide range of medical specialties and nonphysician health care professionals signed a May 17 letter to every lawmaker outlining recommendations for overhauling the Medicare reimbursement system. The first recommendation calls for a full, immediate repeal of the payment formula that has doctors lined up for a decade of annual cuts. The American Medical Association and many of the other organizations have been pushing this move for years.

But the signatories acknowledge that immediate abolishment of the sustainable growth rate formula might not be possible. If lawmakers cannot enact permanent reform right away, they should establish 2016 as the "date certain" to complete the transition to a new system that would update physician pay based on increases in the cost of providing care, the organizations write.

In the meantime, Congress should make sure doctors get annual pay raises that reflect the growth in their practice costs. Lawmakers should start by approving, at a minimum, positive updates for 2008 and 2009, the physician associations recommend.

Although immediate and total repeal is still the primary goal, physicians are backing this new incremental option because it could help Congress with the difficult task of finding the money to pay for the overhaul, said AMA Board of Trustees Chair Cecil B. Wilson, MD.