Michael Burgess: “Maybe it is because I am also a physician, but one of the questions I get most frequently at town hall meetings or just…”

“Maybe it is because I am also a physician, but one of the questions I get most frequently at town hall meetings or just after the town hall meeting is: How come I turned 65 and I have got to change doctors? The reason, Mr. Speaker, is because we are relying on a formula, a 10-year-old formula, a failed formula that does not adequately reimburse physicians' offices for what it costs them to deliver the care to our Medicare patients. To that end, a bill has been introduced, H.R. 5866, and I would encourage other Members to spend some time over the August break to look at this bill. Yes, it is a little long. Yes, it is a little complex. But it is important work. It ensures that physicians receive full and fair payment for their services based on the cost of the inputs that costs them to run their practice. It creates quality performance measures that allows patients to be informed consumers. It builds on the quality improvement that we have done in this Congress and that private medicine has done throughout the country for the last decade. And, finally, it seeks to find reasonable methods of paying for these benefits within the bill. Mr. Speaker, the time has come to revise this failed formula that serves no one good. We need to provide physicians with regular, stable, predictable updates to the cost of their practices. ____________________”