Washington – The percentage of physicians who accept new Medicare patients has increased over the past four years despite a slight drop in physicians’ reimbursement rates, a study shows.
The finding suggests that doctors would not quit seeing Medicare patients if Congress had gone ahead with a proposed 4.4 percent cut in reimbursement rates in 2006, one of the authors said.
Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change, a nonpartisan research organization, said that year after year of fee cuts would lead to an exodus. But, based on recent history, most doctors are willing to accept a one-time hit, he said.
“Policymakers should recognize that Medicare fees are only one factor in physician decisions to accept new patients,” he said.
Congress is expected to halt the pay cut when its members return to Washington this month, in large measure because of extensive lobbying by doctors who said the cut would force many physicians to quit accepting new Medicare patients.
The American Medical Association said its own survey shows that 38 percent of physicians planned to decrease the number of new Medicare patients if the 4.4 percent cut went through.
