Medicare Meltdown Action Center

6.3.2010 AMA Launches a Multi-Million Dollar National Media Campaign in Response to Senate Inaction
Three times this year, the U.S. Senate has left Washington for vacation and allowed a 21% Medicare physician payment cut to go into effect---- causing disruption for patients and physicians. The Senate's failure to address this problem is unacceptable. On June 3, the AMA launched a multi-million dollar media campaign to urge seniors and military families(TRICARE) to tell the Senate to get back to work and fix the Medicare program. Click here for a copy of the print ad that will run in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and a host of daily papers across the country. The radio and TV spots that will run in Arizona, Maine, Missouri, Nevada, South Dakota and Virginia can be viewed at www.ama-assn.org/go/fixmedicarenow.

The AMA is not asking the Senate to pass the legislation which the House passed on May 28. While the House bill provided positive updates for 19 months, in 2012 physicians would face a 33% cut. Growing the problem is the wrong approach. Congress must find the ways, means and will to fund Medicare physician payments that reflect increases in medical practice costs without growing the problem. Congress could have enacted a permanent repeal of this formula a few years ago for less than some of the recent temporary proposals that were band-aids that grew the problem.

The AMA asks Congress to reserve patient access to care by permanently repealing the SGR, stop growing the problem and provide physicians with positive updates that reflect increases in medical practice costs.

5.28.2010 Still No Vote - SGR Cuts Effective June 1

House leaders reached agreement last night on a revised extenders package (H.R. 4213) that they may bring to the floor today before leaving for the week-long Memorial Day Congressional recess. The SGR provisions in the new proposal include a 2.2 percent Medicare physician payment update for the remainder of 2010, a 1 percent update for 2011, and a return to the current SGR formula in 2012—which will result in an estimated 33 percent payment cut that year.

The overall price tag for the bill was reduced in response to concerns expressed by members of the Blue Dog Coalition, who objected to federal deficit increases that would have been produced by previous versions of the bill. Costly provisions that were reportedly dropped from the bill last night include extensions of COBRA benefits for the unemployed and FMAP (Medicaid) funding increases to the states. There are reports that the House will vote on the SGR provisions of H.R. 4213 separately from the bill’s other provisions, after which the two sections of the bill will be merged again and sent to the Senate.

With respect to the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid announced last night that there would be insufficient time following House action on H.R. 4213 to complete Senate consideration of the bill before Memorial Day. As a result, the Senate is adjourning and the 21 percent Medicare physician payment cut scheduled for 2010, which has been postponed three times already, will technically take effect on June 1. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services already issued instructions to its contractors to postpone processing claims for Medicare physician services provided on or after June 1 for 10 days to provide time for Congress to complete its action and overturn the scheduled cut retroactive to June 1.

Because Senators will not be available to vote on the legislation today, there is some possibility that the House will also defer action until returning from the Memorial Day recess on June 7. Physicians and patients must let their Representatives and Senators know that enough is enough—Congress is wreaking havoc on the Medicare program and physician practices across the country!

Make your voice heard during the Memorial Day Recess! TAKE ACTION TODAY!

5.1.2010
The Louisiana Medical Group Management Association, the Louisiana Chapter American College of Cardiology, the Louisiana Psychiatry Medical Association and the Louisiana Ophthalmology Association, join the LSMS in an unprecedented, nationwide grassroots movement urging Congress to fix the flawed payment formula that threatens access to care for millions of Medicare recipients.

When it comes to health care reform, America's doctors keep telling Congress to “keep what’s good in our health care system and fix only what’s wrong.” Something that is very wrong is the formula Medicare uses to pay physicians. Each year for the past decade, physicians have faced steep payment cuts that make it harder and harder for them to care for their Medicare patients. Congress knows about the problem. They know the faulty formula Medicare uses to pay doctors does not work but they have not fixed the problem. We need your help to convince Congress to fix Medicare now. Please sign the petition and send it to your friends to sign as well.

Please fix Medicare by developing a rational Medicare physician payment system that automatically keeps up with the cost of running a practice and is backed by a fair, stable funding formula.

Physicians cannot keep their practice doors open to all Medicare patients without clear direction from Congress on Medicare payment rates. Anything short of a permanent solution is unacceptable. Now is the time for your active participation in the LSMS and your specialty societies. Divided we will be conquered, together we stand!

TAKE ACTION TODAY!

The LSMS joins all 50 state medical societies and more than 20 national specialty societies across the nation in the fight to replace the SGR. In an effort being coordinated by the Texas Medical Association, physicians and patients are being asked to voice their opinion on this issue. How can you make a difference?

Sign the Online Petition, joining with other physicians and patients across the nation. Or download and print the paper petition, and get your patients, fellow physicians, family and friends to sign, then fax to the LSMS.

Contact your US Senators and Representatives and tell them to find a permanent replacement for the Medicare payment formula.

Post this informational flyer in your office, on your Web site, etc. Distribute the flyer to your patients, fellow physicians, family and friends.

Write a letter to the editor of your local paper, or call your local radio and TV station.