Doctors Feverishly Seek to Halt Planned Cuts in Medicare Fees
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration and Republican-led Congress are headed for a political confrontation with an influential constituency: the 700,000 doctors who treat seniors in the Medicare program and are frantically trying to stave off a planned cut in their fees.
The American Medical Assn. said Thursday that doctors may stop taking seniors as new patients -- or even drop out of the program -- if the cuts go through. It has launched a nationwide blitz to persuade Congress to rescind a 5.1% cut planned for next year, insisting that lawmakers act before they adjourn in October to campaign for reelection.
But no action is likely to occur, according to aides to key representatives and senators, given other priorities and the compressed schedule. The Bush administration is showing no sign that it wants to hold off on the cuts.
What is needed, according to a top Medicare official, is a revised system that rewards doctors for quality care rather than paying for numbers of office visits, tests and procedures.
"To throw more money into this old system is not the right answer. We need to work together to find a better and more appropriate way to pay," Herb Kuhn, head of the Medicare division that deals with healthcare providers, said in an interview.
The reduction for 2007 is part of a planned series of cuts that would reduce fees paid to physicians by 40% over the next nine years. In recent years, Congress has been willing to postpone the cuts. Now, frustration is mounting at the AMA because that no longer seems to be the case.
"It is probably fantasy to think that we are going to be able to create a quality program in the next 30 days that is going to solve Medicare's problem," said one AMA board member, Dr. William A. Hazel Jr., an orthopedic surgeon in Herndon, Va. "Absent that, we need to get the payment problem resolved.
"The predicate for having a quality system is to have enough funding in the system for physicians to be able to afford to practice," Hazel added. "We can't take the hit now and be expected to offer better services."
The AMA has also been disappointed trying to secure its top legislative priority: national limits on jury awards in malpractice cases. Despite administration support, doctors were unable to overcome Senate opposition.
