Health groups ask Congress to act on Medicare

Eighty health care organizations and all 50 state medical societies wrote congressional leaders (PDF) today  urging them to reverse the latest round of Medicare payment cuts and provide physicians with a meaningful payment increase that reflects ongoing inflationary pressures.

“America’s physicians are united in urging Congress to use the forthcoming March appropriations bill as an opportunity to provide physicians with desperately needed fiscal relief that is imperative to ensuring that seniors retain access to health care services under Medicare,” the letter said. 

The letter notes that a bipartisan group of 10 House members recently introduced a bill that would stop the 2.83 percent cut in Medicare payments to physician practices this year while providing a 2 percent payment update, aiming to stabilize physician practices and protect patients’ access to care. The bill is the Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act, or HR 879, and is strongly supported by the American Medical Association. 

“The time for legislative action is now,” the letter said. “America’s physicians and the millions of patients we treat can no longer accept any excuses, such as an overcrowded legislative calendar, competing policy priorities, or an inability to achieve bipartisan consensus, as reasons for not including provisions that reverse the latest round of cuts and provide a crucial payment update in next appropriations package.”

The entire letter can be found here (PDF).

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The American Medical Association is the physicians’ powerful ally in patient care. As the only medical association that convenes 190+ state and specialty medical societies and other critical stakeholders, the AMA represents physicians with a unified voice to all key players in health care.  The AMA leverages its strength by removing the obstacles that interfere with patient care, leading the charge to prevent chronic disease and confront public health crises and, driving the future of medicine to tackle the biggest challenges in health care.