TMA EVPGram

The latest scuttlebutt from Washington is that Congress will likely put another short-term patch on the leaky Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula rather than devise a long-term fix for physicians’ Medicare payments. That means we may avoid the 21-percent cut in fees for a few more months. It’s currently scheduled to kick in on March 1. We need to stop the cuts and install a rational Medicare physician payment system that automatically keeps up with the cost of running a practice and is backed by a fair, stable funding formula. In an e-mail and prerecorded video sent to all physician members, TMA President Bill Fleming, MD, urges Texas physicians to ask Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn and their U.S. representative “for a commitment, a solid promise, to support a fair, permanent fix to the Medicare payment fiasco now – no ifs, ands, or buts.” Use the TMA Grassroots Action Center for talking points and a very easy way to share your thoughts and concerns with our leaders in Washington.