WASHINGTON – Physicians’ Medicare pay would be massively affected if the House’s Children’s Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act is signed into law, physician advocates have said.
Rather than basing pay rates on economic growth, Medicare would target spending in separate categories, including primary and preventive care, major procedures, anesthesia services and imaging services.
Primary and preventive care would be paid as a rate of growth in GDP plus 3 percent, while other categories would be subject to cuts.
The American College of Physicians supports the CHAMP Act but warned the House that more physician pay cuts could come in 2010.