Tom Price: “Thank you so much for your perspective and for your wisdom in this area. It is extremely helpful and positive and…”

“Thank you so much for your perspective and for your wisdom in this area. It is extremely helpful and positive and productive for the debate that we are having or the discussion that we are having. I think you point out a very important aspect, and that is, this voluntary reporting requirement that might come soon for physicians is an increase in the regulation. And as you so appropriately point out, it ought not be punitive in nature, because if it is, what we will see in addition to the challenges that we have with levels of reimbursement, decreasing access that patients have to care, we will see further decrease in physicians in the community, and that will significantly harm the ability of patients to see physicians and get the care that they so appropriately deserve and require. Sometimes you will hear folks say in this debate or this discussion, well, there really is not an access problem. And in having some discussions with the folks at the Center for Medicare Medicaid Services, the high-level individuals in the department who are charged with making certain that physicians are there to take care of patients from a Federal Government perspective, I had a specific conversation with one of them. I said it is imperative that you not continue to decrease the reimbursement to physicians because they will no longer be able to cover the costs of providing that care and they will decrease the number of Medicare patients, if not end seeing Medicare patients all together.”