December 2001 • Volume 7 • Number 12
Senate bill could halt big cut in Medicare payment rate
At press time, the AAFP was pushing key congressional members to support a Senate bill that could prevent a 5.4 percent cut in Medicare reimbursement rates scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.
S. 1660, introduced last month by Sens. James Jeffords, I-Vt., and John Breaux, D-La., calls for a 0.9 percent decrease in Medicare payments to physicians and requires the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission to report by March 1 on replacing the formula used to calculate reimbursement rates.
Academy leaders applaud the effort. "We're encouraged that members of Congress are willing to look at the issue despite their many other pressing concerns," says Board Chair Richard Roberts, M.D., J.D., of Madison, Wis.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced the 5.4 percent rate cut Nov. 1. On Nov. 6, the Academy urged key legislators to freeze the 2001 payment rate, a move that would have given lawmakers a year to analyze and revise the "flawed formula" used to calculate rates.
The annual update formula is linked to the nation's gross domestic product. When the economy falters, payments decline, even though there is no correlation between GDP and patients' need for health care.
Lawmakers are beginning to understand that the formula is flawed, says Jerome Connolly, government relations representative in the Government Relations Division. Moreover, Connolly says, because of the increased pressures and practice obligations FPs face, now is not the time to hit them with a 5.4 percent cut in payments.
"We have some sympathy in Congress, which we now have to translate into genuine support for overriding this regulation. And if we're going to get a resolution to this problem, it has to happen now," Connolly says. That's because Congress is working frantically to complete legislation on bioterrorism, appropriations and homeland security before adjourning for the year.
In mid-November, the Academy urged members to send their legislators messages in support of S. 1660 through Speak Out: AAFP Legislative Action Center, at http://capitol.aafp.org/.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2001 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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