Medicare Plans Steep Payment Cut

By: fedweek

Medicare has announced deep cuts in its payments to physicians beginning in January 2008. Officials plan to cut payments by 9.9 percent. For the past five years, Congress has blocked proposals for such cuts, although this did not give physicians any increases in payments to compensate for rising operating costs. The 9.9 percent cut also would affect Tricare patients because Tricare payments are tied to Medicare payments. The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) cites a recent AMA survey that concludes that more than 60 percent of physicians say they will limit new Medicare patients if the cut takes effect. This would impact Tricare beneficiaries in two ways, says MOAA: (1) They make up a relatively small percentage of a doctor’s patient load, so a reduction in Tricare patients would have negligible affect; and (2) Tricare creates red tape for doctors that other health care programs do not.