Legislation on health system reform has been voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives. But the bill that Congress approved on Saturday was missing one critical element: the Medicare physician payment issue.
Swift passage of H.R. 3961, the "Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act," would replace the physician payment system that is widely acknowledged to be dysfunctional and that continually threatens access to care for our nation's elderly and disabled patients, as well as for our military families covered by TRICARE. It also would help provide physician practices with financial stability and predictability and enable them to invest in the infrastructure needed to build a health care system for the 21st century. Without Medicare physician payment reform, the goals of health system reform will remain out of reach.
Please call Rep. John A. Yarmuth and urge a YES vote on H.R. 3961. Use our hotline at (800) 833-6354. You can also send your representative an email.
This legislation would stop the imminent 21 percent Medicare physician payment cut scheduled to go into effect in less than two months. It also would provide a permanent solution to the problem so that Congress will no longer need to apply annual, fiscally irresponsible Band-Aid fixes to stop impending cuts that get worse year after year.
Medicine can no longer support the sort of short-term patches that have been used in the past to postpone true payment reform. This bill could come up as soon as next week, so please tell your representative continue to pursue health system reform and support H.R. 3961.
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