Tell Congress: Stand up for Medicare patients and pass H.R. 2474!

In March, Congress finally passed a delayed appropriations package which included a 1.68% reduction to the 3.37% Medicare physician payment cut that went into effect on January 1.

While the relief was welcomed, it's not enough to ensure that America's Medicare patients continue to receive the high quality care they deserve.

To make matters worse, in addition to the lack of full relief of the 3.37% cut, physicians remain the only providers whose Medicare payments do not automatically receive an annual inflationary update. As a result, Medicare physician payments have lagged 29% behind the rate of inflation growth since 2001.

Multiple pieces of legislation have been introduced to address these issues but so far Congress has refused to act. For example, H.R. 2474, championed by a bi-partisan group of physician members of Congress and supported by over a hundred cosponsors, would reform this flawed system, and provide annual inflationary updates, based on the Medicare Economic Index (MEI), for Medicare physician services, similar to updates received by other health care providers.

Further inaction is not an option for Medicare patients and the physicians who treat them. Both the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and the Medicare Trustees issued reports this year noting the growing, cumulative gap between Medicare payment rates and the costs of running a practice. In fact, the Trustees noted that without Congressional action the "quality of health care received by Medicare beneficiaries would, under current law, fall over time compared to that received by those with private health insurance."

Tell your members of Congress to stand up for Medicare patients and get to work on physician payment reform! Sign now and urge them to support America's physicians and their Medicare patients by ending the cycle of annual cuts and passing H.R. 2474 to ensure physicians are provided an annual inflationary update so they can continue to provide high quality care to their patients!