WASHINGTON, March 16 (UPI) -- Proposed reductions in the rates Medicare pays doctors could cause them to stop accepting new Medicare patients and decrease seniors' access to healthcare, the American Medical Association (AMA) said Thursday.
According to an AMA survey of doctors, if Medicare payments are decreased by 5 percent in 2007 - as proposed in President Bush's 2007 budget -- 29 percent plan to decrease the number of new Medicare patients they see and 16 percent said they would stop seeing new Medicare patients altogether.
"Nearly half, 45 percent, of the physicians surveyed by the AMA say next year's Medicare cut will force them to either decrease or stop seeing new Medicare patients," said AMA President J. Edward Hill. "Physicians want to treat seniors, but Medicare cuts are forcing physicians to make difficult practice decisions."
The problem will only become worse when the reductions, which result from formula changes designed to curb increases, reach 34 percent by 2015, the group said.
"Medicare payments have not kept up with practice costs for years, and nine years of cuts are sure to make matters worse," Hill said. "The cuts come as the first wave of baby boomers begin to enter Medicare in five years. By the time the full force of the cuts takes effect in 2015, 67 percent of physicians say they will be forced to decrease or stop taking new Medicare patients."
Surveyed doctors also said they would make up the difference between cost and reimbursement by deferring investments in equipment and information technology.
"As we work to improve quality, the large gap between Medicare payments and practice costs is a huge barrier to physician investment in technology used to improve quality," Hill said. "If we want physicians to make investments to improve quality, Congress must ensure that payments keep up with practice costs."
The survey comes on the heels of similar arguments made by groups representing hospitals who said that the curbs will only make things more difficult for the 70 percent of hospitals who already lose money on treating Medicare patients.
Congress may yet back away from the election-year cuts. The version of the bill passed by the Senate on Thursday does not contain the curbs. Past cuts, like a 4.4 percent decrease passed for 2003, were later repealed after warnings that they could limit Medicare patients' access to healthcare.
But the conclusions of the AMA study may be overblown, said Robert Hayes, president of the Medicare Rights Center, a beneficiary advocacy group.
"Virtually all physicians - even with a small cut in payments - will still accept Medicare patients," Hayes told United Press International, pointing to numerous surveys that show that most doctors welcome new Medicare patients.
"Medicare payments are somewhat lower than private payments," he said, "but the speed and reliability results in much greater revenue flow than with private insurers."
MedPAC, the independent federal body that makes recommendations on reimbursement rates, has generally good judgment, he said.
"Medicare is almost always on target and pays what it should. It should pay as much as needed to maintain service -- and no more," Hayes said.
