CMS projects deeper cuts in Medicare physician payments for 2007

To stop the cuts, contact Congress NOW!

Two months after releasing a draft 2007 Medicare fee schedule reflecting a 4.7% cut for 2007, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a revised draft which calls for even deeper cuts:   5.1%, with imaging services particularly hard hit.

In a statement from the American Medical Association, Board Chair Cecil Wilson, MD, said, “Medicare has expanded the treatments it covers more than 90 times since 1999, yet under the current Medicare payment system physicians are penalized with lower payments per service the more care they provide.  In fact, Medicare currently reimburses physicians about the same in 2006 as it did in 2001.  Without congressional intervention, Medicare physician payments will be slashed 37 % over the next nine years, as practice costs increase 22%.  Nearly half, 45%, of physicians tell the AMA the cuts will force them to either decrease or stop taking new Medicare patients."

This steeper cut increases the urgency of rapid action by Congress to stop the cut and provide a positive update.  To send a message to all Members of Congress that this pay cut is unacceptable, go to http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/6583.html.

Don't want to lose $15,000 per year?  Contact Congress today!

Note:  The following calculations from the AMA are based on the June 2006 Medicare Trustees report which anticipated a 4.7% cut.  The August 8 report (for which state calculations are not yet available), calls for an even deeper cut of 5.1%.

By 2015, the 2006 Medicare Trustees report predicts that Medicare physician payment rates will be cut by 37% due to the flawed payment update formula, starting with a cut of nearly 5% in 2007.

From 2007 to 2015, Medicare payments in the District of Columbia will be cut by $2.18 billion.  The average annual cut over this period for DC physicians will be $15,000 per year for each physician.  The first of the nine annual Medicare pay cuts is slated to occur on January 1, 2007. That cut to DC physicians will be $34 million.  These figures represent the impacts on Medicare Physician Payment Schedule services only and do not include potential spillover effects from private, Medicaid, TRICARE and other plans that tie payments to Medicare rates. In addition, per-physician impacts may vary considerably depending on each physician's Medicare patient load and utilization.