CHICAGO – With a 21 percent Medicare physician pay cut effective June 1 and a federal temporary hold on claims ending June 14, members of the American Medical Association signed and sent white lab coats to Congress Sunday urging lawmakers to reverse the cut.
The AMA's "Write Coat Rally" was part of the organization's annual conference, held this year in Chicago.
"AMA physicians are sending signed white lab coats to their members of Congress as a symbolic, visible reminder that action is desperately needed to avert a Medicare meltdown through repeal of the broken Medicare physician payment system," said AMA President J. James Rohack, MD.
"Physicians will start seeing a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments this week that will hurt seniors' healthcare as physicians are forced to make practice changes to keep their practice doors open," Rohack said.
Medicare officials announced earlier that they will hold claims through Thursday, June 14, giving lawmakers four more days to act. The House has already approved a fix, but the Senate has yet to act on the issue, which had been technically required by June 1.
According to Rohack, the AMA has also issued an educational flyer for physicians to share with their patients, urging them to contact their senators. Anyone interested can get involved in the AMA's Patients Action Network and reach their members of Congress directly at 1-888-434-6200, he said.
Leaders of the American College of Physicians said that the failure of Congress to act prior to June 1 to avert the cut and to begin moving toward a new payment system is "unacceptable. "
"Already this year, Congress has three times passed short-term extensions that have delayed the scheduled payment cut but did nothing to introduce longer-term stability in Medicare payments or to move to a better payment system," they said.
According to the ACP, Congress had the opportunity "to begin moving toward a longer-term solution that would have provided higher updates for all physician services, guaranteed that no services would be cut and created an opportunity for higher and more equitable updates for primary care visits and preventive services."
"Too many members of Congress refused to commit to supporting the legislation, and in the end, they wouldn't agree to even a 19-month reprieve from the cut," they said.
In his weekly address Saturday, President Barack Obama blamed Senate Republicans for blocking legislation to prevent the cuts and pledged to work toward a permanent solution.
"The cuts would potentially mean widespread trouble for seniors getting needed care," Obama said. "After years of voting to defer these cuts, the other party is now willing to walk away from the needs of our doctors and our seniors."
The doc fix has been a contentious partisan battleground over the past year, encompassing opposing healthcare reform plans and budget agendas.
Republicans have resisted a permanent change to what doctors call a broken payment formula, arguing it will heap $400 million more debt on to the already out-of-control spending by Democrats.
Last week Sen. Tom Coburn, MD (R-Okla.) said the proposed fix would favor California doctors.
"We need a doc fix for the entire country, not a partial fix for one state," he said in a statement. "The American people are tired of special deals that pick winners and losers on the basis of politics rather the country's best interest."
