REPOST: Medicare Panel Recommends 1% Physician Pay Boost in 2012

Washington -- Lawmakers should increase Medicare payment rates to physicians and prevent a massive across-the-board cut set for 2012, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recommended in its annual March report to Congress.

 The commission suggested a 1% increase in doctor pay in place of the scheduled reduction. [DY: As if the 1% raise is at all realistic while the SGR cut is still dangling over our heads.]  The report was released March 15, days after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services projected that doctor pay faces a 29.5% cut next year under the sustainable growth rate formula.
The MedPAC recommendation is not binding on Congress, although lawmakers sometimes use the advice as a starting point for congressional negotiations on preventing upcoming pay cuts. The 2012 reduction is the largest that physicians have faced to date.

"The AMA concurs with MedPAC's conclusion that the nearly 30% cut built into Medicare's payment system for 2012 would jeopardize access to physician services for many patients and should be replaced with a positive update to help offset increases in practice costs," said American Medical Association President Cecil B. Wilson, MD.

"The current Medicare physician payment formula is broken, and the AMA will work with MedPAC and policymakers on both sides of the aisle to replace it with a system that better reflects the costs and practice of 21st century medical care and provides stability for physicians and their Medicare patients."
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Full article here:  http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/03/21/gvl10321.htm