Statement attributable to: 
Bruce A. Scott, M.D.
President, American Medical Association

“The American Medical Association (AMA) commends the Medicare Advisory Commission (MedPAC) for again acknowledging during their meeting today the widening gap between what Medicare pays and physicians’ practice expenses and for stressing for the third straight year that physician payment rate updates should be based on an inflation-based index for Medicare. The coming year will mark the fifth (PDF) consecutive year of Medicare cuts, and physicians’ Medicare reimbursement is down 29 percent (PDF) since 2001 when adjusted for inflation. Physicians are being paid nearly 30 percent less for the same work we did two decades ago, while costs to provide care and run an office have soared.

“At a time of physician shortage, the status quo is unsustainable; it jeopardizes health care access and physician practices across the country. It takes eight to 10 years to train a new physician, but for many physicians, it truly may only take one more year of these cuts for them to quit. To preserve patient access to care, the AMA urges Congress to reverse the pending 2.8-percent Medicare cut and provide a positive update for 2025–a legislative proposal with strong bipartisan support–and enact meaningful Medicare reform to align payment updates with the growth in the Medicare Economic Index.”