[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 23 (Wednesday, March 6, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E286]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            THE PRESERVING PATIENT ACCESS TO PHYSICIANS ACT

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                         HON. NANCY L. JOHNSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 6, 2002

  Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, on the first of this year, 
a 5.4 percent across-the-board Medicare payment cut went into effect 
for doctors caring for seniors. Under the present payment system, 
further deep cuts are in store for the future. In some areas of the 
country doctors are no longer accepting new Medicare patients because 
payments no longer fairly recognize the changing health care needs of 
today's seniors nor the increasingly complex and difficult environment 
doctors must work under.
  With malpractice insurance skyrocketing, nursing costs rising, 
diagnostic and treatment options expanding rapidly, and paperwork 
burdens exploding, these cuts are unjustifiable and unfair! They result 
from an arbitrary formula that ignores the real costs of providing 
health care. According to the American Medical Association, Medicare 
payments to doctors have increased only 18.5 percent in the last 10 
years, an average of 1.1 percent per year, which pales in comparison to 
the skyrocketing costs of providing health care.
  To now cut payment rates 5 percent for four years will, without 
question, force early retirements among physicians who are primarily 
serving our seniors, or force physicians to limit the number of 
Medicare patients they serve. More seriously, in the long run under-
reimbursing our doctors in yet another public health care program will 
discourage the top quality students medicine has traditionally 
attracted and erode the world famous quality of American medicine.
  Today, I am introducing legislation that would implement the 
recommendations of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) 
and reform Medicare's doctor payment formula. The bill repeals the 
Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) system that has resulted in unpredictable 
payment increases and cuts. If left in place, the present SGR system is 
projected to cut physician payments by more than 20 percent over the 
next several years. My bill increases payments to physicians by 2.5 
percent in 2003 and ties future updates to an index similar to the 
Medicare Economic Index, making the system for adjusting physician 
payments similar to that for adjusting Medicare payments to other 
providers. While much work remains to be done to understand and manage 
the cost of this common-sense reform, rational payment rates are 
essential to maintaining the quality of Medicare.
  I am committed to providing physicians with a more stable, 
predictable, and fair payment formula. Absent such reform, we will 
shortchange our physicians and threaten both access to care and quality 
of care for our seniors.

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