Thanks to everyone who read this or my letter to the editor of the Mountain Democrat, and especially if you contacted your senators to express concern!At this time, a bipartisan bill has been passed that puts off a 25-30% reduction in reimbursement to doctors taking care of MediCare and TriCare patients until 1/1/2012. It awaits President Obama's signature, which he has said will be forthcoming.
In the meantime, please keep the pressure on Congress and Senators Boxer and Feinstein to use this time to find a different way for MediCare to determine physician reimbursement.
The current formula (the so-called Sustainable Growth Rate, or SGR) has been used for a decade or more, and ties physician reimbursement to various measures of cost including the rate of inflation. While I am fine with MediCare expenditures being contained, the problem here is that the costs of running a practice (payroll, insurance, rent, supplies) has steadily increased far faster than the rate of inflation). This results every year in the potential for a steep reduction in physician reimbursement. Congress has annually passed a last-minute measure putting it off until the next year.
By now, this has snowballed into a potential rate cut of 25-30%, which you have to admit is mighty steep. If this were to happen, older Americans and military patients would be depending on doctors wanting to take on the care for patients for whom they would be getting 70 cents or less on the dollar; all this while still trying to pay their employees generously and provide them with benefits during the worst economy since the Great Depression. Bit challenging, that.
Please keep Congress working on a better solution for this problem!
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