Medicare Payment Action Alert

To: House and Senate Conferee Key Contacts
State Chapter Executives

From: Roland Goertz, M.D., Chair
Commission on Governmental Advocacy

Kevin J. Burke, Director, Division of Government Relations

Subject: Medicare Payment ACTION ALERT

Congress only has a few days left to stop Medicare from cutting your payments next year. Your legislator is a member of the conference committee that will decide if any congressional action will be taken this year to prevent a cut in your Medicare reimbursement. Please contact your Member of Congress immediately with the following message:

Congress Must Act Now to Prevent Medicare Physician Pay Cuts and Provide Positive Updates.

Please call your legislator now. Tell your legislator:

Unless Congress and the Administration act this fall, Medicare physician payment rates will be cut by 26 percent over the next six years – beginning with a 4.4 percent cut on January 1, 2006.

Cuts in physician payments place seniors’ access to care in jeopardy. An AMA survey indicated that if payment cuts begin in 2006, more than a third (38 percent) of physicians intend to decrease the number of new Medicare patients they accept. Moreover, an estimated 34 percent of physicians whose practice serves a rural patient population will discontinue rural outreach services.

Congress must act now. Unlike other provider groups, physicians have not had a payment update that kept up with practice expense increases since 2001. Another cut or even a freeze will force many to reduce services to Medicare patients in order to make ends meet.

Thank you very much for your assistance. Members of Congress really appreciate hearing from constituents and your call will make a difference. Please share any feedback you receive with Jerome Connolly in the AAFP Government Relations Division -- jconnolly@aafp.org.