Doctors decline Rep. Thomas' offer to increase Medicare reimbursements in exchange for quality program participation

The American Medical Association and other doctors' groups last Thursday rejected an offer from House Ways and Means Committee Chair Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) to block a scheduled reduction in Medicare physician reimbursements in exchange for participation in a quality of care program, CQ HealthBeat reports.

Thomas' offer would have blocked a 5.1% reimbursement cut currently scheduled to take effect in January 2007. Thomas' proposal also would have increased reimbursements by between 2.5% and 2.8% in June 2007 for doctors who agreed to report quality-of-care data to the government.

Under the proposal, doctors who did not sign up for the quality-of-care program would have faced a reimbursement cut in 2008 in accordance with the Medicare physician payment formula.

Analysts said the scheduled 2008 cut would be at least 5%. Doctors' groups are seeking a 2% reimbursement increase for 2007 that is not tied to reporting requirements, according to CQ HealthBeat.

Doctors' groups have said that many practices cannot afford the cost of reporting systems "because Medicare has either frozen payment levels or increased them only slightly in recent years," CQ HealthBeat reports.

Earlier this week, Thomas said he might add a provision to revise the Medicare physician reimbursement rate to stalled tax legislation (HR 5970) (Reichard/Carey, CQ HealthBeat, 9/14).