Phil Gingrey: “I rise again today, this week, to continue the discussion regarding the declining Medicare reimbursements for…”

“I rise again today, this week, to continue the discussion regarding the declining Medicare reimbursements for physicians. Effective January 1, 2004, physicians and other providers paid pursuant to the Medicare physician fee schedule face at least a 4.2 percent cut in reimbursements. For nearly 40 years, Medicare has provided necessary health care to those millions of patients across the country, some 40-something million this year. Another steep cut in reimbursement rates is now forcing many physicians who care for Medicare patients to make difficult choices. The scheduled January 1 cut in the reimbursement rate is just one of a string of Medicare payment reductions for physicians. Due to problems in the formula used to set Medicare payments for physicians, this 4.2 percent cut taken with the 5.4 percent decline in 2002 contributes to successive pay cuts reaching more than 10 percent.”