ACC Advocacy: Enough is Enough, Congress!

Within the past several weeks, the House and the Senate approved separate legislation preventing a 21.2 percent Medicare physician payment cut from taking effect on June 1. However each Chamber has been unable or unwilling to consider the other's legislation to stop the Medicare payment cuts. As a result of Congress's rancor, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began processing payments with the 21.2 percent cut last Friday. Enough is enough, Congress! Physicians across the country are tired of Congress's short term budgetary solutions to this ongoing physician payment crisis. This year alone, Congress has approved and allowed to expire three short term freezes in Medicare payment without addressing the growing problem. If allowed to continue, the cuts that went in to effect last Friday will impact your patients the most --- leading to less access, higher fees, longer waits, impersonal care.