AAPI President Praises House Vote to Permanently Repeal Flawed Medicare Physician Payment Formula
Nov 20, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dino Teppara, Esq.
AAPI Director of Legislative Affairs
Cell: (803) 467-2130
legislativeaffairs@aapiusa.net
AAPI President Praises House Vote to Permanently Repeal Flawed Medicare Physician Payment Formula
Washington, D.C. – Today, AAPI President Dr. Vinod K. Shah announced that the U.S. Congress voted in favor of repealing the flawed Medicare physician payment formula.
“I am pleased that Congress recognizes the importance of preserving Medicare for our nation’s seniors,” said Dr. Shah. “Without this legislative fix, Medicare will cut payments to physicians by 21% in 2010 with even more cuts in the future. As physicians, we want to focus our abilities on providing the greatest access to health care in the most affordable manner to our patients. Without this fix, we simply cannot provide the care needed to patients, resulting in fewer doctors accepting Medicare patients.
“This is a step in the right direction with action now needed in the Senate. AAPI members educated their Members of Congress on this important issue and the need for a permanent fix, demonstrating our organization’s passion for excellence in the field of health care,” concluded Dr. Shah.
Without a legislative fix, Medicare would face continued cuts into the future. The origin of the flawed formula was the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, where spending reforms instituted a sustainable growth rate (SGR) mechanism to calculate the physician payment. The SGR was designed to offset increased Medicare spending on a yearly basis, but actually resulted in yearly Medicare cuts. Congress has voted since 2002 to eliminate these annual cuts.
The “Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009,” (H.R. 3961) repeals the current Medicare physician payment formula and replaces it with a new one. Under the House bill, the fees paid to physicians under Medicare would increase by $105 billion over the next 10 years. The bill replaces the SGR formula with an annual payment increase equal to 1% more than the growth in the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
###