The Digestive Health Physicians Association (DHPA) opposes the 2.8 percent decrease in Medicare physician payments included in the proposed rule for Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for 2025, which follows years of negligible increases, freezes and a payment cut in 2024.
Congress should prevent these physician cuts from taking effect. Hospital systems and other providers receive compounding payment increases linked to the cost of health care, while physician reimbursement in independent practices has dramatically trailed inflation in practice costs and consumer prices. Not surprisingly, independent practices are unable to survive under this flawed payment system and continue to get acquired by ever-consolidating hospital systems.
If Congress does not act, Medicare payments will have been cut by more than seven percent over the past four years, and when adjusted for inflation, physician payments from Medicare have effectively declined by 30 percent over the past two decades.
This is unsustainable for our nation’s medical groups, physicians, and other health care providers. The effects of these cuts will be exacerbated in rural and underserved areas, which continue to face significant healthcare access challenges.
Physicians and other providers do not receive inflationary updates in the Medicare program, which is why eliminating these potential cuts is so crucial. Longer term, we hope Congress will enact more comprehensive payment reform that provides a permanent inflation-based update based on the Medicare Economic Index.
Independent physicians and our patients deserve a predictable payment system that matches Medicare reimbursement to the cost increases experienced by our private practices and will bring much needed stability to the physician payment system.
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