Legislation Introduced to Link Physician Pay to Inflationary Measures
On April 6, 2023, a bipartisan group of physician lawmakers introduced H.R. 2474, “Strengthening Medicare for Patients and Providers Act” in the House of Representatives. This bill links the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule to the Medicare Economic Index (MEI) – a measure of inflation in which physicians are subjected relating to practice costs and wage levels.
In a press release by the American Medical Association (AMA), this bill would “put physicians on equal footing with almost all other health care providers by instituting an annual inflation-based update.” The AMA estimates physician payments have fallen 26% from 2001 to 2023. Physicians have had to deal with inflation, COVID-19, rising practice costs and burnout. In addition, there is a six-year payment freeze lasting until 2026. When this freeze ends, the payment update for most physicians will be limited to 0.25 percent indefinitely, which is far below even normal rates of inflation.
This bill was introduced after the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) recommended a physician payment update linked to the MEI, and urged Congress to act to strengthen the payment system.
“We are deeply worried that many practices will be forced to stop taking new Medicare patients–at a time when access to care is already inadequate,” (AMA President) Resneck said. “Congress often waits until problematic situations become full-fledged crises. Members need to hear from their hometown physicians that we are nearing a crisis. Congress needs to pass this bill stat.”
