AMA presses Congress on Medicare Payment Formula

The American Medical Association wrote a letter to Congress.  “Dear Congress,” they said, “we’d like our doctors to have more money.”  The AMA would like Congress to replace what they’re calling Medicare’s “flawed” formula for calculating payments.

“Access to high-quality healthcare for seniors is in peril due to the looming meltdown of Medicare’s payment mechanism for physicians,” the letter (actually) said.  That payment mechanism will cause payments to drop about 10 percent in 2008.  That number will jump to 40 percent in 2015 if the formula is allowed to continue unchecked and unfixed.

“The AMA understands that tackling this problem is not easy and stands ready to work with Congress to improve Medicare and the quality of healthcare in America.”

The Congressional Budget Office has projected that replacing the SGR with annual updates based on inflation would increase payment rates for physicians by about 2% annually, but would cost the federal government $262 billion over 10 years, plus $70 billion in higher costs for beneficiaries.