American Medical Association President: Fix Doc Payment System Now
AARP and AMA believe House bill would help patients get better care.
Source: AARP.org | November 20, 2009
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Update: On Thursday, Nov. 19, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the "Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009" by a vote of 243 to 183. The bill revises the Medicare reimbursement system and eliminates automatic pay cuts for doctors in 2010 and in future years.
This week, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would stop planned cuts to physician reimbursements under Medicare. Without the so-called "doc fix" bill, payments to providers will be cut by 21 percent in January 2010, and additional annual reductions will follow. As a result, doctors might be less likely to accept Medicare patients, and some older Americans may lose their physicians, says Dr. J. James Rohack, president of the American Medical Association, in an interview with "Inside E Street" host, Sheilah Kast.
In outlining AARP's position at a news conference Tuesday, AARP president Jennie Chin Hansen said that "with the first wave of baby boomers reaching Medicare age in less than two years, the time to act on a permanent solution is now."
The AMA's Rohack says that the current formula for calculating physician reimbursement should be replaced with a system that reflects how care actually happens. Both his organization and AARP believe that the House's bill, known officially as the "Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act," is a necessary step toward that goal.
In the interview with "Inside E Street," Rohack says that a permanent solution to the problem of doctor reimbursements under Medicare is long overdue, adding that short-term fixes have made the problem and the costs of reform worse. Changing the system, he says, would help patients receive better preventive care and increase their chances for staying healthy and out of the hospital.
Come back next week to watch the full "Inside E Street" episode, "Doctors and Deficits," also including guests Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget; David Sloane of AARP; and Jonathan Blum, director of the Center for Medicare Management.
