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Published on: 7/12/2008
Last Visited: 7/12/2008
But even if the bill survives, some Wisconsin doctors might stop taking new Medicare patients because of the uncertainty about future Medicare cuts, said Dr. Steve Bergin.Physicians face fee cuts on a regular basis because of a cost-control formula Congress adopted in 1997.
"Revisiting this every year is getting old fast," said Bergin, president of the Wisconsin Medical Society.
Congress failed to pass legislation before July 1, when a 10.6 percent cut in the Medicare reimbursement rate was scheduled to take effect.However, the Bush administration postponed the cuts until July 15.The move gave the Senate enough time to approve legislation to block the cut and to provide a 1.1 percent increase in 2009.The legislation passed the House and Senate with veto-proof margins.
Bergin, an obstetrician gynecologist who lives in Stevens Point but practices in Wausau, said in addition to concerns over lower Medicare payments, doctors worry about the ripple effect a cut would have on private insurance companies' reimbursement rates.
Whatever happens in Medicare "certainly does affect all physicians," Bergin said.
Bergin said a 2007 national survey by the American Medical Association gives a sense of physician frustration.
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