Medicare Pay Cut to Take Effect March 1: Members Urged to Contact Legislators

Unless a bill introduced by Senator Bunning from New York is adopted, Medicare is expected to move forward with the planned physician reimbursement cut of 21 percent. Congress has been unable to resolve the problematic manner but both the House and Senate have planned meetings to address the matter and it is hoped some resolution can be found prior to the weekend. The issue is tied to the effort to repeal the draconian SGR (Sustainable Growth Rate) which is currently used to calculate the CMS budget for Medicare. The SGR is based on GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and not actual practice costs. Without such repeal further cuts up to 40% by 2016, as estimated by the American Medical Association) would be expected in the future resulting in a severe impact to our seniors and health care system.

The American Medical Association (AMA) has established a website to reach your legislator and ask for immediate action to halt the cut to Medicare and repeal the SGR. http://capwiz.com/ama