A recent survey released by the American Medical Association found that it is getting harder for Medicare patients to get an appointment with a doctor. According to the physicians surveyed it’s because Congress failed to pass a permanent fix for the Medicare reimbursement crisis.

The crisis is due to calculating physician pay rates by using what is called the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula. This calculation causes each scheduled pay cut to be greater than the last and recent pay cuts which were postponed were scheduled to be 21.3%.

17% of the physicians surveyed, 31% of primary care physicians, have cut back on the number of Medicare patients that they treat. Even though the scheduled physician pay cuts have been postponed by Congress every year since 2003 (4 times already in 2010) they have yet to pass a permanent solution to the problem.

Physicians feel that Medicare is an “unreliable payer” due to the fact that their rates are too low and that there are still threats of future pay cuts. The AMA is launching an advertising campaign urging Americans to contact their representatives and asking them to consider a permanent solution to the problem.

Until something is done to reassure physicians concerning their Medicare reimbursements seniors may find it challenging to get a doctor’s appointment especially if they don’t already have a regular physician.  bjmdjd

Material modifications since posting: none

American Medical Association · Medicare patients · Medicare reimbursement · sustainable growth rate formula

As I predicted the Medicare disaster that I wrote about on 2/27/10 was averted when President Obama signed a bill postponing the physician pay cut of 21.2% until April 1st. Kentucky Senator Bunning had the bill held up along with several important attachments (like the unemployment benefits extension) until the Democrats could prove to him that they had a way to pay for it.

Organized medicine is still not pleased. There is something called the sustainable growth rate formula that is used to determine Medicare reimbursement rates for physicians. This formula is the reason that these pay cuts come up frequently and the congress has to waste time repealing or postponing them which is always what they end up doing. While this is responsible on their part and needs to be done, they could avoid the entire issue by permanently repealing the formula. Organized medicine has begged for this for some time.

Anyway all is well for the time being and hopefully congress will come up with a more permanent fix to the problem before April 1st. And hopefully Medicare patients will be able to get doctors appointments between now and then.  bjmdjd

Material modifications since posting: none

health · Medicare physician pay cut · President Obama · Senator Bunning · sustainable growth rate formula · wellness