AMA Going to Bat to Help Congress Pass Bill to Increase Physician Medicare Payment

The AMA is seeking for a permanent repeal of the Medicare physician payment formula. This comes up right about this time every year as we have seen in the past with everyone holding their breath until the last minute. If this gets done they could maybe even pick up some new members or re-attract lost membership.

A new television campaign is to follow, sample video below. The AMA states it is time for more than just a band aid fix, as if it is not done there are the consequences of seniors having even more difficulty finding a physician as many more will choose not to see seniors. To avoid this happening, the law needs to be changed to stop the algorithms that calculate pay to go into effect if there is no action. BD

The nation's largest medical society is jumping into action right away on a campaign to help the Senate Democratic leadership pass a bill next week to would hike their pay rates.
The American Medical Association (AMA) announced Thursday that it is launching a national television advertising campaign to push senators to pass the bill, even though centrist Democrats and all Republicans are concerned that it would add to the federal budget deficit.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to begin debate next week on a bill, which would cost around $240 billion over 10 years and not be offset by budget cuts or tax increases, just before the Senate opens its fight over the healthcare reform package Reid is in the process of finalizing.