Political Quotes

“I support the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act, H.R.6331, which makes a number of needed changes related to Medicare reimbursement, including reimbursement for physicians' services. Medicare physician fee schedule payments are updated each year according to a complex formula based on a sustainable growth rate, SGR. Unfortunately, because of the way the formula is calculated, even if Congress prevents the cuts in a given year, scheduled reimbursements cuts are likely to increase in subsequent years unless Congress takes additional action, such as developing a permanent alternative to the SGR formula. I support efforts to ensure that physicians receive adequate reimbursement for their services. It could be financially unsound for physicians to continue to provide services to Medicare beneficiaries if reimbursement is inadequate. As a result, allowing reimbursement cuts to enter into effect could pose significant access problems as physician's are unable to afford providing services to Medicare beneficiaries in need of medical attention. While I believe past measures to alleviate this burden on physicians have been helpful, I know from my discussions with health care providers throughout Michigan that more needs to be done. For the long term, Congress must find an alternative to the SGR. The SGR is linked not to the cost of providing health services, but to the performance of the overall economy.”