The Senate adjourned early for the weekend without repealing or delaying the 21 percent Medicare physician pay cut that is expected to begin on March 3.
Congress has toyed with a "fix" for what doctors and lawmakers are calling a flawed Medicare physician pay formula, but so far they have been unable to pass measures included in a healthcare reform package or in a freestanding bill.
"A Medicare meltdown now seems certain, " the American Medical Association (AMA) said in a statement on Feb. 24. The cut will force physicians to limit the number of Medicare patients they accept.
"Our message to the U.S. Senate is stop playing games with Medicare patients and the physicians who care for them," said AMA President J. James Rohack, MD. "It is shocking that the Senate would abandon our most vulnerable patients, making them the collateral damage of their procedural games."
Last November, the House passed legislation that would repeal the Medicare payment formula and better update payments to reflect the increasing cost of care.
AARP and the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) have joined with the AMA in calling on the Senate to make a permanent fix to the payment formula, known as the sustainable growth rate (SGR).
At a recent press conference, Bob Doherty, senior vice president of governmental affairs and public policy for the American College of Physicians (ACP) said, "the failure of past congresses to deal with the SGR in a straight way has dug a hole so deep they don't know how to get out of it and where to find the money."