Letters to the Editor

July 6, 2008 - Vote imperils patients (Augusta Chronicle)

By Jacqueline W. Fincher, M.D.| Guest Columnist

During an election year when access to health care is the second-most important domestic issue cited by Americans, incredibly U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, and both U.S. Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, voted against legislation that would ensure stability in the Medicare program for Georgia's elderly and disabled patients.

That vote means that, as of July 1, physicians who care for Medicare patients saw their payment slashed by 10.6 percent. Without congressional action to rectify the situation, Medicare will cut an additional 5 percent from physician pay in 2009, according to a June 30 announcement by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, the federal agency that oversees Medicare.

THE IMPACT of these cuts threatens elderly and disabled patients' access to health care because it further drives primary care physicians toward financial insolvency at a time when we're already struggling with a shortage of primary care doctors.

In December, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission reported that three out of 10 Medicare patients had trouble finding a new primary care physician. In March, the Medical Group Management Association reported that nearly 24 percent of all physicians had begun limiting or not accepting new Medicare patients; 46 percent would limit or stop accepting new Medicare patients with implementation of the 10.6 percent pay cut that just took effect.

SINCE 2001, internal medicine and family medicine physicians have worked tirelessly on behalf of Medicare patients, even as Medicare compensation for their services stagnated, and they struggled with 20 percent inflation in costs to keep their offices open. No small business -- as most primary care physician practices are -- can sustain that kind of loss and remain open to care for people.

Our lawmakers must return to Washington and support Medicare payment levels that enable primary care physicians to keep their doors open. Lawmakers must vote "yes" on limiting debate and "yes" on passage of the Medicare bill, House Resolution 6331. Without such a vote, we're all at risk of losing our health care. An insurance card has no value unless there's a doctor in the house.

(The writer runs McDuffie Medical Associates in Thomson, and is vice president of the Georgia Chapter of the American College of Physicians.)

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