Physicians are again shortchanged in a spending bill proposal to avert a government shutdown. AMA President, Dr. Bruce A. Scott, says more practices will close and Medicare patients will pay the price.

Congress is poised to deliver physicians their fifth consecutive Medicare pay cut. However, House Republican leadership has assured the GOP Doctors Caucus that it will block these physician payment reductions in the upcoming budget reconciliation process.

Congress is hurtling toward a deadline when they must approve a spending package or face a government shutdown. The current continuing resolution left in place a physician pay cut from Jan. 1, despite physician hopes lawmakers would reverse it.

When practices disappear, patients lose a critical touch point — local, small-town doctors — in an increasingly complex and impersonal health system, writes speaker of the AMA House of Delegates, Lisa Bohman Egbert, MD.

Increased reimbursement for doctors and prior authorization reform are needed to head off burnout and clinician shortages, said American Medical Association President Bruce Scott, M.D. A legislative package unveiled over the weekend by House of Representatives leadership excludes both.

Doctors should receive the same kind of inflation-adjusted payment updates that most other providers already benefit from, writes guest columnist Chenele Dixon.

Physicians across the country are outraged that Congress’ proposed spending package locks in a devastating fifth consecutive year of Medicare cuts, threatening access to care for 66 million Medicare patients.

Patients of every age and in all locations are losing access to physicians because of the broken Medicare payment system. Ophthalmologist, Ravi D. Goel, MD, shares how the repeated pay cuts have impacted his practice and patients.

Commissioners discuss indefinitely linking payment updates for physician practices to the growth in the cost of providing care.