Surgeons and anesthesiologists say they plan to opt out of Medicare or make practice changes that will reduce Medicare patients' access to care if a proposed 22% cut in physician payments goes into effect, according to a national survey conducted by the Surgical Coalition.
Medicare's current physician payment system calls for a nearly 22% reduction in payments to physicians, which Congress has repeatedly prevented from taking effect. The Surgical Coalition, which includes the American College of Surgeons and 22 other associations, conducted an online survey of 13,834 physicians — 96% of whom currently participate in Medicare — and found they are "deeply concerned about the current Medicare system and how to fix it," according to the survey report.
If the current system is not altered and the nearly 22% rate cut takes effect, 37% of surgeons and anesthesiologists said they'd change their Medicare status to non-participating, and another 29% predicted they'd opt out for 2 years and privately contract with Medicare patients. When broken down by specialty, the survey found only 28% of ophthalmologists, 27% of orthopods, 35% of anesthesiologists and 26% of otolaryngologists would continue to participate in Medicare after a 22% rate cut.
Among the 31% of physicians overall who said they'd continue to participate in Medicare, three-quarters said they planned to make changes in their practice if the rate cut were enacted. Examples of anticipated changes include limiting their appointments with Medicare patients (69%), ceasing to provide certain services (45%), deferring new equipment purchases (44%) or reducing staff (43%).
"Data collected from this survey confirm that surgeons will make significant practice changes and timely access to surgical care will be jeopardized if Medicare payments continue to decline," concludes the Surgical Coalition.
Irene Tsikitas
