AMA/TMA protest Medicare Cuts

The American Medical Association says at least 38-percent of its doctors will stop accepting new Medicare patients if scheduled cuts to the program aren’t halted.

The planned cuts begin January 1st and increase over the next five years. For
2006, the Medicare reimbursement rate will drop 4-point-three percent. With
870-thousand Medicare patients in Tennessee, that equates to a loss
of 58-million-dollars for the state’s doctors.

Tennessee Medical Association president Phyllis Miller, a gynecologist, says the cuts are coming as the cost of providing care goes up. She says the widening gap
will have some doctors turning away Medicare patients, while others will try to retain profits by seeing more of them.

“If you talk to patients, so many of them say, ‘Doctor so-and-so doesn’t have time for me. I’m in and out quickly.’ And that’s the reason is the demands to make ends meets you’ve got to see more patients in a day’s time. You’ve got to extend your hours. The patient’s gonna see a lack of access either by not being able to get in to see a doctor, which is happening more and more especially with our primary care. Or, not feeling that they’re getting the quality time that they are used to.”

Nashville surgeon Michael Minch sits on the TMA’s board. He says the planned cuts will be a double whammy for Tennessee doctors.

” It’s not just gonna be the Medicare population, it’s also that large TennCare population. And there are some doctors who that makes up the most of their practice. And they are primarily rural physicians. People who take care of a lot of poor people and there’s just no way they can do that. There’s not enough reimbursement to take a modern office and keep it open.”

The TMA and the American Medical Association argue that Medicare reimbursements are calculated using a flawed formula that’s tied to things like that Gross Domestic Product, rather than the rate of inflation or the cost of living. The groups are lobbying Congress stop the payment cuts. The Medical Associations are backing a bill co-sponsored by Tennessee Congressman Bart Gordon and Lincoln Davis that changes the formula.

They’ve begun running radio and print ads across Tennessee, telling Medicare patients that access to care will be in jeopardy with the cuts.