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TMA has begun campaigning to stop the 10.5-percent Medicare payment cuts now scheduled for June 30 and to win a long-term plan to replace the Sustainable Growth Rate formula with a funding scheme that keeps pace with the cost of providing care.
"We can’t leave these decisions up to Congress," U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, MD (R-Lewisville), said at the TEXPAC Grassroots Forum in early January. "Health care begins and ends with doctors, and without doctors it doesn’t happen."
TMA is developing the "Texas Medicare Manifesto" so Congress and the public will know exactly what physicians want and why. You can read all about it in a commentary by TMA President William W. Hinchey, MD, in the February Texas Medicine.
The American Medical Association estimates that Texas physicians were saved $228 million – or $4,700 per physician – by the last-minute reprieve from the 10.5-percent cut in Medicare fees that was scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. Unfortunately, other changes in Medicare payment calculations mean that physicians in Austin, Dallas, Ft. Worth, and Houston may see little change or small payment reductions for most services. All of this is evidence of the need for a permanent fix. We have six months to help Congress develop a rational Medicare physician payment system that automatically keeps up with the cost of running a practice and is backed by a stable funding source.
TMA has developed English and Spanish flyers to give to your patients and talking points to engage our senators and representatives while they are still here in Texas for the year-end recess. As Dr. Burgess said, "This requires all hands on deck. We can’t sit back and let someone else do something for us."
How does the new 2008 Medicare physician fee schedule affect your practice? You can find out on the TMA Web site.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reported it has received several inquiries asking whether physicians need to take any special action to be paid at the new rates. The answer is no, CMS said. TrailBlazer Health Enterprises and other Medicare were told to begin processing all claims with dates of service Jan. 1 and after as of Jan. 7.
Last Published: 1/14/2008 Print this page
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