Dear Majority Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McConnell, Speaker Johnson, and Minority Leader Jeffries:
The undersigned national medical organizations and state medical societies write to strongly urge Congress to quickly pass legislation to stop another impending round of Medicare payment cuts. Absent Congressional intervention, physicians are facing a 3.37 percent payment reduction on January 1, 2024.
The combination of ever-increasing practice costs and long stagnated Medicare payment rates has become unsustainable. When adjusted for inflation in practice costs, Medicare physician pay has declined 26 percent from 2001 to 2023. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently acknowledged that the cost of running a practice will increase 4.6 percent in 2024, yet physicians are being subjected to a 3.37 percent cut next year.
If Congress does not act by the end of the year to stop this impending payment cut, many physicians will be forced to reduce available health care services, cut office hours, or even forgo treating Medicare patients altogether. America’s physicians and their patients deserve better.
The flawed Medicare physician payment system is in desperate need of fixing. We stand ready to work with House and Senate leadership on bipartisan solutions to stop these drastic payment reductions and provide stability in the Medicare program for our nation’s seniors and the physicians who care for them.
Sincerely,
American Medical Association