House Dem supports lawsuit against Medicare regarding physician pay

The action, which is being brought by the Center for Primary Care in Georgia, takes issue with the way Medicare sets its reimbursement rates for specialists and primary care physicians.

The Hill: House Dem Supports Lawsuit Against Medicare Agency Over Doctor's Pay
A House champion of higher reimbursements for primary care physicians expressed support Monday for a lawsuit challenging the way Medicare calculates how much to pay doctors. The Center for Primary Care in Georgia argues in its suit that the agency is breaking the law by letting specialist physicians determine how much Medicare will pay them. Primary care physicians make only about half the salaries of the top-grossing specialists in surgery and cardiology, experts say, leading to a worsening shortage of family doctors that's undermining the nation's preventive care system and driving up costs for patients (Pecquet, 8/8).

iWatch News: Doctors Sue To End AMA's Role In Setting Medicare Payments
Since 1991, an obscure committee of doctors has had a large hand in determining how much Medicare pays by making a case for the underlying value of their services. The committee's recommendations generally are accepted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ... The committee, sponsored by the American Medical Association, is known as the Specialty Society Relative Value Committee, or RUC. ... The AMA says doctors simply are exercising their First Amendment right to petition the government. Others argue that because doctors are, in effect, helping set reimbursement rates, the committee's influence on Medicare is a clear conflict of interest (Eaton, 8/8).