AMA calls for fix to Medicare's doctor payments

Modern Healthcare: "With a sizable cut to Medicare physician payments taking effect in just one week, the American Medical Association is seeking clarity from Congress on its plan of action to stop the 21.2% reduction. ... Recent attempts to pass a sustainable growth-rate fix in the House and Senate have failed. Another setback occurred several weeks ago when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) decided to strip a provision from the Senate jobs bill that would have frozen current Medicare reimbursement rates for physicians until Oct. 1. ... Medicare's SGR formula has been threatening cuts to physicians since 2003." Doctors will face on March 1 a Medicare pay cut of 21.2% payments if lawmakers don't intervene (Lubell, 2/22).

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This article was reprinted from khn.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.