The Medicare physician payment rule again points to the need to reform the payment system. Congress must stop the cuts, according to Cecil Wilson, MD, Board Chair of the American Medical Association.

This is his statement, including his comments on reimbursement cuts to imaging services:

"This latest Medicare physician payment rule again highlights the need to fix the fatally flawed physician payment system, with next year's Medicare physician payment scheduled to be cut 5.1 percent. Seniors who rely on Medicare and the physicians who care for them are stuck wondering if 2007 will be the year access to care erodes as we wait for congressional action to stop the Medicare payment cuts.


"Medicare has expanded the treatments it covers more than 90 times since 1999, yet under the current Medicare payment system physicians are penalized with lower payments per service the more care they provide. In fact, Medicare currently reimburses physicians about the same in 2006 as it did in 2001. Without congressional intervention, Medicare physician payments will be slashed 37 percent over the next nine years, as practice costs increase 22 percent. Nearly half, 45 percent, of physicians tell the AMA the cuts will force them to either decrease or stop taking new Medicare patients. To keep providing high quality care to patients, Medicare must provide appropriate payments to the doctors who provide that care.

"This latest Medicare rule imposes cuts on imaging services that are used by physicians to make specific and accurate diagnoses of patient illnesses. As advances in imaging technology increase the ability to provide quality, targeted care, more patients and physicians rely on these services. It is important to look not just to the increase in use of such services, but to their ability to provide patients with healthier outcomes, such as using CT scans and MRIs to pinpoint and stage various types of cancer. Medicare must differentiate between appropriate and inappropriate imaging use and tailor its policies so that appropriate use is not punished. In fact, many of these services have been encouraged through new Medicare screening benefits, such as bone density measurement to prevent osteoporosis. These imaging cuts would impact patients ability to get quality diagnose through imaging services and should not be implemented.

"The AMA calls on Congress to stop next year's Medicare physician payment cut and instead reimburse physicians in line with increases in the cost of caring for America's seniors."

DOTmed News will keep you abreast of this continuing story as events develop.

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