Medical specialists alarmed by Medicare
physician payment rule
Statement of Dr. Dirk M. Elston on Behalf of the Alliance of
Specialty Medicine
WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The following press statement is
attributable to Dirk M. Elston, MD, FAAD, on behalf of the Alliance
of Specialty Medicine:
America's specialty physicians are extremely alarmed by the recently
released Medicare physician payment rule. The new rule will not only
cut physician reimbursement by five percent as of January 1, 2007,
but due to additional government payment policies, many specialties
will suffer even larger cuts ranging from six to 20 percent.
If
Congress does not act soon, the proposed cuts in reimbursement could
lead to a severe problem in access to care for our nation's most
vulnerable patients.
These cuts are particularly unacceptable at a time when Congress and
the President are calling on physicians to financially invest in
information technology and new reporting systems. Rising costs and
shrinking reimbursement are causing more and more good doctors to
reconsider their participation in the Medicare program. As a result,
the access of our nation's seniors to needed specialty care is at
risk.
Over the past three years, in order to prevent cuts to physicians,
Congress has had to override the deeply flawed sustainable growth
rate formula (SGR), which the government uses to determine
adjustments to the amount of reimbursement physicians receive for
performing Medicare-covered services. It is critical that Congress
act as soon as they return for the lame duck session to once again
stop the cuts before they take effect January 1, 2007.
While a stop-gap measure is necessary in the short term for Congress
to prevent physicians from receiving payment cuts in 2007, the SGR
is permanently flawed and cannot be maintained in the long term.
Payment cuts will continue to threaten patients' access to care year
in, year out until a long-term solution to the Medicare
reimbursement system is enacted.
Dr.
Elston is a practicing dermatologist in Danville, Pennsylvania. He
recently testified on behalf of the Alliance of Specialty Medicine
on the Medicare system at an Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.
The
Alliance is comprised of 11 national medical specialty societies
representing more than 200,000 practicing physicians and the
millions of patients they serve each day. The Alliance is a
non-partisan organization and is dedicated to the development of
sound federal policy that ensures patient access to the highest
quality specialty healthcare.
Source:
Alliance
of Specialty Medicine