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Contact Your Representative to Support the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009
Beginning January 1, 2010 Medicare payments to doctors are scheduled to be cut 21.2 percent unless Congress intervenes. Legislation currently before the House of Representatives, the "Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009," H.R. 3961, would prevent the Medicare physician payment cut and replace it with a new payment formula. Please contact your Representative today to support H.R. 3961. It is critical that every member of the House of Representatives hear from physician constituents. Similar legislation in the U.S. Senate recently failed to obtain enough support for consideration, so passage of the House bill would generate positive momentum. To contact your Member of Congress, click the "Take Action" button below.
Dear [ Decision Maker ] , As a hematologist, who takes care of patients with Medicare, I write to urge you to support HR 3961 the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009. This bill would repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula that is currently used to establish annual Medicare physician updates and would provide a foundation for creating a new and sound payment formula. Unless Congress acts physicians will face a 21% cut in our Medicare fees beginning January 1, 2010. This follows almost 10 years of instability in Medicare payment caused by the flaws in the SGR formula. These kinds of payment cuts are unsustainable and cannot be tolerated by the Medicare program. I strongly urge you to support passage of HR 3961 and a long-term solution for Medicare physician payment.
Sincerely, |
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| Background Information |
On October 30, Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives unveiled H.R. 3961, the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act. This bill would repeal Medicare's sustainable growth rate, or SGR, formula and replace it with a payment system that provides for more predictable updates from Medicare. This bill would eliminate the 21 percent cut planned for 2010 while establishing a more sustainable physician payment system. Originally, Congress had included a provision to correct physician payment in its major health overhaul legislation (H.R. 3200), but concern about the high cost of this provision ($250 billion over ten years) forced it to separate it out.
