Manufactured out of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, the goal of the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) was to limit the growth in Medicare spending to keep it in line with inflation. Under the SGR, if overall physician payment costs exceeded target expenditures, a cut to Medicare physician payment was triggered.
Following AMA advocacy in leading the charge to reform the Medicare payment system, a bipartisan group in the U.S. House of Representatives has introduced a bill that would provide a 4.7% payment update in 2025.
Congress should implement an annual, inflation-based payment update as part of the Medicare payment system for doctors, two rheumatologists write.
U.S. Sen. John Boozman and U.S. Sen. Peter Welch along with 30 other lawmakers call on Senate leaders to advance a legislative solution to support access to Medicare services.
Medicare physician payment cuts are creating an unsustainable environment for physician practices and threaten patients’ access to care.
Congress should reverse cuts to Medicare payments or risk driving away doctors who treat seniors with complex needs.
Medicare physician payment is not keeping up with inflation. This has repercussions for patients’ access to care.
Indiana lawmaker Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) expresses hope that payment cuts to doctors are reversed in next spending bill.
The stakes in reforming our nation’s broken and unsustainable Medicare payment system could not be higher for patients, for physicians, and for the entire health care system.
The AMA and more than 120 other national medical organizations and state medical societies called on Congress to pass legislation to reverse the 3.37% Medicare physician pay cuts that took effect Jan. 1 but Congress kicked the can down the road.
Fee cuts and already woefully inadequate payments have physicians contemplating leaving Medicare or quitting medicine altogether.
Inflation is threatening health care access across the country as the gap widens between the cost of medical services and the coverage rates paid out by Medicare, Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) warned last month.
We’re dedicated to raising awareness of Medicare physician payment system problems so that we can work towards solutions that protect physician practices and patients’ access to care. It’s vital that patients and physicians use their voices to advocate for change.
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