Physicians united in outrage over Congress' failure to avert 21 percent Medicare cut

To put it mildly, physicians are infuriated with Congress's failure to get the "extenders bill" passed through the Senate before legislators fled Capitol Hill for a weeklong recess.

"It is sad and ironic as we enter the Memorial Day holiday that Congress' inaction on the 21 percent cut puts healthcare [TRICARE, which ties its payments directly to Medicare] for America's military heroes and their families at risk," American Medical Association president J. James Rohack, MD, said in a statement.

The reactions are consistent. "Internists and patients are rightly angered," said J. Fred Ralston, Jr, MD, president of the American College of Physicians. Larry Wickless, DO, president of the American Osteopathic Association, described his group as "frustrated and angry." American College of Cardiology CEO Jack Lewin may have summed the universal sentiment up best by calling the Senate's failure to act "the worst-case scenario" for patients and physicians.

Other groups have been even more critical, not willing to accept the watered-down version of the doc fix, even if it had passed in time. For example, the American Academy of Family Physicians has announced that it would only support a solution that extended through 2012 and included a mark-up on rates for primary-care physicians featured in the proposed three-year fix, while the American Osteopathic Association issued a statement on Friday saying that the 19-month doc fix passed by the House is not "meaningful reform."

And with the June 1 enforcement date for the pay cut now come and gone, CMS's offering to delay claims processing for 10 business days "to avoid disruption in the delivery of healthcare services to beneficiaries and payment of claims for physicians" does little but rub salt in physicians' wounds, particularly those with small practices, notes Republican Congressman and physician Michael C. Burgess. "Do you know what happens when you hold a check in a one- or two-doctor office for two weeks?" he posed to CQ Politics. "That doctor doesn't have a paycheck at the end of the month--their margins are so tight."

When senators return June 7, they are expected to offer amendments to the extenders package that contains the 19-month delay to the cuts. Any changes prior to Senate passage would send the bill back to the House for another vote.

"The truth is we should be doing a lot more than this. We need a permanent fix," said Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.).

To learn more:
- read this article on MedScape Today (reg. required)
- see this coverage on WLOX.com
- check out this piece on California HealthLine
- read this CQ Politics piece

Related Articles:
Patch, fix or cut: Physicians await their June 1 fate
Doctors dropping patients as Medicare reimbursement cut looms
Clock runs out on doc fix