Doctor groups urge Congress to grant temporary reprieve from Medicare payment cuts

Roll Call: Doctors' groups "are stepping up their pressure on lawmakers to approve another temporary reprieve from Medicare payments cuts scheduled to go into effect next month." The American Medical Association as well as "groups involved with military health care" are using their membership to "sway lawmakers against the cuts." The AMA is also running print ads "urging Congress to prevent cuts in physician reimbursements for 13 months. … The AMA has long argued that Congress needs to permanently overhaul the Medicare formula rather than making short-term changes just before a cut is scheduled to take effect. But in light of the short work period of the lame-duck session, the medical association has proposed rolling back the cuts for just over a year and then allowing the new Congress to consider more permanent solutions" (Roth, 11/16).

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.