Please Urge Your Member of Congress to Support Medicare Patient Access Legislation
With physicians facing yet another cut from CMS in their Medicare payments for 2024, physicians are again urged to contact Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, as well as their respective US Representative, to urge (Fix Medicare Now) that they pass legislation, such as HR 2474, that would require inflation-based increases in Medicare physician payment.
The legislation currently has 33 co-sponsors, including New York representatives Dan Goldman (D-NYC), Jerrold Nadler (D-NYC) and Brandon Williams (R-Central New York).
Physicians are the only health care providers whose Medicare payments do not automatically receive an annual inflationary update. As a result, Medicare physician payments have lagged 26% behind the rate of inflation growth since 2001, including a 2% cut in their Medicare payments imposed just this past year. During this current period of record inflation and coming on the heels of a highly disruptive pandemic, this statutory flaw often amplifies the impact of other payment policy changes like “budget neutrality” adjustments, performance incentives, and so forth. As practice costs have risen significantly, these Medicare payment cuts are forcing many physicians into employment arrangements, or out of practice altogether, with many seniors losing access to their physicians as a result.
Please urge your member of Congress to co-sponsor this bill today!
