In a letter sent recently to the Senate majority and minority leaders, the senators urged that Congress act before its pre-election October adjournment to avert projected cuts of about 5% in the Medicare physician reimbursement rate.
The reduction is projected due to the Medicare sustainable growth rate formula, which the 80 senators called “flawed.” If no action is taken, the roughly 5% reduction would take effect January 1, 2007. “At a minimum, we must provide physicians with a positive Medicare payment update for 2007,” the letter states. Average 2006 Medicare physician reimbursement rates, said the senators, are equivalent to those of 2001. “If the 2007 cut is imposed, then the aggregate payment rates since 2001 will have fallen 20% below the government’s conservative measure of inflation for medical practice costs,” the senators asserted.
The letter quotes a 2006 American Medical Association survey as stating that if the payment cuts go into effect in 2007, then 45% of physicians plan to decrease the number of new Medicare patients they accept.
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