Medical specialists alarmed by Medicare physician payment rule

Statement of Dr. Dirk M. Elston on Behalf of the Alliance of Specialty Medicine

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The following press statement is attributable to Dirk M. Elston, MD, FAAD, on behalf of the Alliance of Specialty Medicine:

America's specialty physicians are extremely alarmed by the recently released Medicare physician payment rule. The new rule will not only cut physician reimbursement by five percent as of January 1, 2007, but due to additional government payment policies, many specialties will suffer even larger cuts ranging from six to 20 percent.

If Congress does not act soon, the proposed cuts in reimbursement could lead to a severe problem in access to care for our nation's most vulnerable patients.

These cuts are particularly unacceptable at a time when Congress and the President are calling on physicians to financially invest in information technology and new reporting systems. Rising costs and shrinking reimbursement are causing more and more good doctors to reconsider their participation in the Medicare program. As a result, the access of our nation's seniors to needed specialty care is at risk.

Over the past three years, in order to prevent cuts to physicians, Congress has had to override the deeply flawed sustainable growth rate formula (SGR), which the government uses to determine adjustments to the amount of reimbursement physicians receive for performing Medicare-covered services. It is critical that Congress act as soon as they return for the lame duck session to once again stop the cuts before they take effect January 1, 2007.

While a stop-gap measure is necessary in the short term for Congress to prevent physicians from receiving payment cuts in 2007, the SGR is permanently flawed and cannot be maintained in the long term. Payment cuts will continue to threaten patients' access to care year in, year out until a long-term solution to the Medicare reimbursement system is enacted.

Dr. Elston is a practicing dermatologist in Danville, Pennsylvania. He recently testified on behalf of the Alliance of Specialty Medicine on the Medicare system at an Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.

The Alliance is comprised of 11 national medical specialty societies representing more than 200,000 practicing physicians and the millions of patients they serve each day. The Alliance is a non-partisan organization and is dedicated to the development of sound federal policy that ensures patient access to the highest quality specialty healthcare.

Source: Alliance of Specialty Medicine