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I wonder what the chance is for RDs to get additional reimbursement...

AMA Seeks Delay in Medicare Payment Cuts

THURSDAY, Sept. 7 (HealthDay News) -- If proposed cuts in Medicare

payments to physicians take effect early next year as planned, many U.S. doctors

would be forced to limit the number of older Americans they can see as patients,

the American Medical Association said Thursday.

However, Congress seems likely to postpone the cuts for at least one more

year. Eighty senators have signed a letter to the Senate leadership, asking that

the cuts to doctors be delayed.

At issue is the soaring cost of Medicare, the federal health insurance

program for people 65 and older, as well as some other, younger Americans with

certain disabilities. It's estimated that Medicare will cost taxpayers $420

billion in 2006, up from $335 billion in 2005. And that figure is projected to

soar to $792 billion in 2015, according to a recent study published in Health

Affairs.

In seeking ways to limit the explosive spending growth, Congress is

considering a variety of measures, including limiting reimbursement payments to

doctors.

" On Jan. 1, the federal government will begin nine years of cuts totaling

nearly 40 percent of the payments made to physicians who care for Medicare

patients, " AMA board member Dr. Hazel Jr. said during a teleconference

Thursday afternoon.

The hope is that Congress will come up with a reimbursement formula

acceptable to doctors, without overwhelming taxpayers, Hazel said. But a new

formula will take time to develop. So, the AMA would like to see any

reimbursement cuts postponed for up to two years to provide the needed time to

create a new payment plan, he said.

The AMA worries that the proposed cuts in reimbursements to doctors would

prevent patients from seeing doctors in a timely way, because the cuts would

force many doctors to stop seeing or delay seeing Medicare patients, Hazel said.

" This concern is matched by many in Congress, the Federal Advisory

Committee on Medicare and now the vast majority of Americans, " Hazel said.

According to a new AMA survey, 86 percent of people are worried that cuts to

doctors would hurt their ability to get care. This was true for 86 percent of

patients already receiving Medicare, and 96 percent of Baby Boomers, he said.

What's more, the majority of people aren't aware of the pending

reimbursement reductions to doctors. " Seven out of 10 Americans are unaware that

the government plans to make these cuts, " Hazel said.

Among doctors questioned in a previous AMA survey, half said they would

stop taking on new Medicare patients or reduce the number of Medicare patients

they see if next year's cuts take place, Hazel said. " Over the life of the cuts,

67 percent said they would be forced to decrease or stop taking on new Medicare

patients, " he said.

Hazel said he hopes Congress will act in the next three weeks, before

recessing, to postpone the cuts -- as it has done for the last several years.

One expert thinks the cuts will be delayed, if not in the next few weeks,

then when Congress returns after the mid-term elections in November.

" Congress realizes this is an important issue, and they want to address

it, " said R. Grealy, chairwoman of Medicare Today and president of the

Healthcare Leadership Council, an industry lobbing group.

" They will probably do a one-year fix, " Grealy said. " Every year, it gets

done. We are pretty certain it will get done again this year. The question is

when. It could be done in the next couple of weeks, but if it's not, it will be

done during the lame-duck session. "

Meanwhile on Thursday, two new national surveys conducted by the Kaiser

Family Foundation found that substantial majorities of pharmacists (86 percent)

and physicians (71 percent) believed that the new prescription drug law was

helping people on Medicare save money on medications, although both professional

groups said the law was too complicated.

Eight in 10 pharmacists (81 percent) said that they had had customers who

had problems getting their prescriptions and one in five (19 percent) reported

such problems had affected most of their customers in Medicare drug plans. In

addition, the surveys found, two in three pharmacists (67 percent) said they had

had customers leave the pharmacy without a medication because the prescribed

drug was not on their Medicare drug plans formulary.

More information

The American Medical Association lists Medicare physician payment reform

among its legislative priorities.

SOURCES: Hazel, M.D., board member, American Medical Association,

Chicago; R. Grealy, chairwoman, Medicare Today, and president, Healthcare

Leadership Council, Washington, D.C.; Sept. 7, 2006, American Medical

Association press conference

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A young child asked a woman how old she was. She answered, " 39 and holding. "

The child thought for a moment, then said, " And how old would you be if you let

go? "