Washington, D.C.--Congressman Eliot Engel voted on Thursday to preserve seniors’ access to their doctors by fixing the way Medicare reimburses physicians. The Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act (H.R. 3961) will permanently reform the Medicare payment system. The measure repeals a 21 percent cut in payments to doctors scheduled to take place in January, and replaces it with a stable system which protects seniors, preserves patients relationship with their doctors and promotes primary care. To view Congressman Engel’s House floor speech on the measure - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9tVWFmNKws

“By fixing this system in a responsible way we are ensuring that our seniors and disabled citizens have reliable access to their doctors and the primary care they need,” said Rep. Engel. “Medicare is a lifeline for America’s seniors and this bill takes crucial steps toward strengthening it and providing the highest quality of care and benefits for our seniors. This measure is a critical companion bill to the Affordable Health Care for America Act, which recently passed the full House.”

This bill tackles seniors’ main concern – preventing doctors’ pay cuts which could encourage doctors to opt out of treating Medicare patients. It builds on the historic health insurance reform bill the House passed earlier this month, which will lower premiums, extend the solvency of Medicare by five years, improve preventive and primary care for seniors, and close the “donut hole” drug coverage gap.

“There’s a reason why AARP and leading senior advocacy groups have given our bills their strong endorsement,” said Rep. Engel. “They will lower costs and improve care for our elderly citizens. It’s a good deal for New York’s seniors.”

The House attached statutory “pay-as-you-go,” or PAYGO, legislation to the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act before sending it to the Senate. “President Obama and this Congress made a commitment to honest budgeting, and by permanently fixing the way doctors are paid we are putting a stop to budget gimmicks,” said Rep. Engel “We’re also reminding the American people that new policies must be paid for.”

With statutory PAYGO in place, all new tax and entitlement policies must be offset, restoring fiscal discipline and bringing down the deep deficits that face our nation. It ends the budget gimmick which artificially reduced the deficit by assuming physician payments would be cut by 40 percent over the next several years, even though Congress has consistently intervened to prevent those cuts from occurring.

The legislation will do the following:

• Preserves seniors’ access to their doctors – It replaces the pending 21 percent fee cut with an update for 2010 based on the Medicare economic index while a new system is being put in place.
• Promotes primary care – provides an extra growth allowance for primary care services to promote access in Medicare and encourage healthier lifestyles.
• Encourages integrated care – Through the Accountable Care Organizations, which provides incentives for doctors to take responsibility for improved quality and lower costs. These organizations may “opt-out” of the national spending targets and establish their own.
• Establish fairer growth targets to keep doctor’s payments steady – Eliminates accumulated deficits from current spending targets to give a fresh start, but still holds doctors accountable for spending growth.

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