Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s annual March report recommends physician reimbursement increase

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s annual March report has recommended a 1.1% physician reimbursement increase for next year and a reduction in payments to Medicare private health plans.  The report assumes that lawmakers again will act to prevent physician pay cuts triggered by the sustainable growth rate formula. Existing law calls for a 10.6% reduction to take effect July 1 and an additional cut of about 5% in 2009.

Physician organizations, including the American Medical Association, welcomed MedPAC’s continued support for a positive update. They called for a permanent replacement for the SGR based on increases in physicians’ practice costs. But as was the case last year, MedPAC was unable to reach an internal consensus on an alternative to the current formula. “We are where we were,” said Mark Miller, PhD, the commission’s executive director.  MedPAC’s lack of agreement on an SGR replacement is not helping to advance a solution, said Jim King, MD, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. “As long as they continue to be so vague in their presentation, all it does is continue to confuse the issue.”

Read more here:  http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/03/17/gvl10317.htm