Congress Struggles To Fix Medicare Payment Problem
Congress looks for permanent solution to stop automatic cuts in Medicare payments.
Congress is debating a permanent solution for a problem that has forced some Michigan doctors to turn away Medicare patients.
More than a decade ago lawmakers enacted automatic cuts in Medicare payments to physicians so they would not exceed the nation’s overall economic growth.
But as the economy struggled Congress repeatedly had to prevent the Medicare cuts from taking effect – what’s become known as the “doc fix.”
Now physicians face a more than 20 percent reduction in Medicare payments this year unless Congress passes another doc fix by the end of the month.
The Michigan State Medical Society’s Colin Ford tells WDET’s Quinn Klinefelter that at the moment both physicians AND Medicare patients are on shaky ground…
