Supporting medicine’s plea to halt the scheduled 2.8% cut in Medicare payment for physicians in 2025, a majority of U.S. House of Representatives members signed on to a letter urging House leadership to take action before the end of its current session Jan. 3.
The letter, initiated by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, MD (R-Iowa) and Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), gathered bipartisan endorsement from 231 additional House members – including 12 Texas representatives.
The final tally of co-signers reflects that Congress is hearing physicians’ concerns, says David Henkes, MD, chair of the Texas Delegation to American Medical Association.
“We seem to be getting a pretty good response from both sides, Rs and Ds,” he told Texas Medicine Today, adding that the momentum must continue. “Texas leadership is working very hard on this. We need physicians to tell their legislators what the problems are and how bad it is.
“If doctors can't stay out there practicing, what's going to happen is – and it already is doing this – it's going to affect access for patients,” Dr. Henkes added. “In the past, [legislators] really haven't found a whole lot of people complaining about access and being able to get into see their doctors, but that seems to be escalating quite a bit.”
Regarding the urgent need for reform, the letter notes that this is the fifth consecutive year that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a fee schedule proposing reduced payments to physicians. The letter prescribes a permanent, annual inflationary update in Medicare payments as detailed in House Resolution 2474.
That bill is the cornerstone of a four-point reform plan TMA, AMA, and other medical organizations have championed even before CMS announced the latest plan for Medicare cuts.
In recent years, Congress has mitigated such cuts through end-of-year legislative action, but cumulatively physicians have experienced a 29% downturn in Medicare reimbursement since 2001 when adjusted for inflation – which would worsen if the latest cuts go through.
Dr. Henkes notes that in addition to the AMA’s work on the issue, TMA is part of a “big five” alignment with medical associations in California, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania, taking on a collaborative leadership role to encourage action.
“Texas has very good grassroots communications with individual representatives and senators,” Dr. Henkes said. “They will want to hear from people within their districts or at least within their states.”
You and your patients can help stop the cuts by asking Congress to act now. Visit TMA's Medicare Payment Reform Center where you can find:
- A patient-friendly flyer and postcard for your reception area pointing them to ready-made flyers action alerts to Congress.
Phil West
Associate Editor
(512) 370-1394
phil.west[at]texmed[dot]org
Phil West is a writer and editor whose publications include the Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Austin American-Statesman, and San Antonio Express-News. He earned a BA in journalism from the University of Washington and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin’s James A. Michener Center for Writers. He lives in Austin with his wife, children, and a trio of free-spirited dogs.