Maine physicians stand to lose about $27 million in Medicare reimbursements by 2016 - a relatively low figure compared to the losses pending in other states. New York, for instance, could lose $489 million, and Florida could lose $607 million.
However, Maine suffers from a number of factors that put its physicians and Medicare patients at high risk, according to speakers from the American Medical Association, the Maine Medical Association and multi-specialty care practice InterMED, who gathered at InterMED today to discuss the scheduled 10 percent cut in Medicare reimbursement.
The speakers noted that Maine has the oldest population of any state and the second-highest proportion of Medicare patients of any state (after Iowa). Additionally, the state has a below-average population of physicians to treat Medicare patients, said Nancy Nielsen, MD, president-elect of the AMA. About 46 percent of physicians in Maine are over 50 years of age, she added.
Such factors could severely limit both the number of Medicare patients seen by Maine physicians and the number of physicians entering primary care, the speakers emphasized.
"We have 204 physician vacancies," said Gordon Smith, executive vice president of MMA, which represents 2,700 physicians, residents and students in the state. Roughly 60 to 80 of those vacancies are in family medicine, Smith said. "That's twice what the average vacancy rate has been in previous years," he noted.
Kevin Flanigan, MD, president of MMA, said that 45 percent of his patients are insured by Medicare. "Under this federal program, I am receiving the same reimbursement today as I did in 2001." He said a 10 percent cut would likely close his practice's doors.
Thomas Claffey, president of InterMED, a Maine-based multi-specialty practice, said recruitment and retention of high quality medical personnel requires the practice to be able to pay a competitive wage, and further decreases to already insufficient pay could affect staffing.
The speakers said they hope Congress will act quickly on averting the cut and changing the sustainable growth rate formula. AMA proposed that subsidies paid to privately managed Medicare Advantage plans be used to dodge the cut.
"It's an annual death dance with Congress," Nielsen said. "This is a crisis. This is not a manufactured crisis. It is very real."