The American Medical Association on Wednesday said it strongly supports the Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act of 2025 that would temporarily reverse the 2.83% payment cut to physicians.
The 2.8% cut went into effect in January over the objections of the AMA, which had stressed for legislation to be included in last year's spending package to avert the physician pay decrease.
WHY THIS MATTERS
The AMA backed the bill in a May letter to Sen. Dr. Robert Marshall, R-Kansas, who introduced the Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act of 2025.
The bill "takes a meaningful step toward reestablishing Medicare payment stability," after five consecutive years of payment cuts, the AMA said.
The Senate bill, S.1640, like its House counterpart H.R. 879, would reverse the 2.83% cut and apply a 2% update to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) Conversion Factor from June through December 2025.
"By fully reversing the 2.83% cut and applying a 2% update to the MPFS conversion factor from June through December 2025, S. 1640 offers physician practices a temporary but important reprieve. It allows practices to better weather inflationary cost pressures while Congress works toward the long-term structural reform that Medicare urgently requires," Dr. James L. Madara, the AMA's then executive vice president and CEO, said in the letter.
In May, the AMA named Dr. John J. Whyte as its next chief executive officer and executive vice president. Whyte will assume leadership on July 1. Dr. Bobby Mukkamala is the newly inaugurated AMA president.
THE LARGER TREND
When adjusted for inflation, Medicare physician payments have declined 33% since 2001, the AMA said.
The 2024 Medicare Trustees report said that "absent a change in the delivery system or level of update by subsequent legislation, the trustees expect access to Medicare-participating physicians to become a significant issue in the long term," according to the AMA.
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) voted to urge Congress to link Medicare payment updates for physician practices to the growth in the cost of providing care. The recommendation came after Congress failed to put forward legislation to prevent the 2.83% cut that kicked in on January 1 despite several proposals to do so.
Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org