Medicare Cuts Pose Threat to General Population's Healthcare

LAKE WORTH, FL – Lawrence Gorfine, M.D., Board Certified Anesthesiologist, Second Vice President of the Palm Beach County Medical Society (PBCMS), Member of the Board of Directors, and co-founder of the Palm Beach Spine & Diagnostic Institute announces significant and impending cuts to the physician reimbursement Medicare program.

"Most critical is to stop the 2008 scheduled cuts, that if allowed to go into effect, will create a catastrophic series of events in the medical community including restriction in access to quality healthcare available for all Americans, not just Medicare beneficiaries," says Dr. Gorfine.

We are running out of time. About 18 months ago, just prior to his departure as chairman of the Federal Reserve board, Alan Greenspan was speaking to a small group on the Hill. He was asked about the future of Medicare, and his response was somewhat surprising. He was less concerned about the overall solvency of the program as he was about "having anyone there to provide the services required.”

So reports Rep. Michael C. Burgess, M.D., Chairman of the Republican policy Committee, in a June, 2007 article, The Cure to the Physician Crisis, in Washington D.C.'s, The Hill. "Over the years, cuts to Medicare physician payments have been averted by creative legislating, and Congress will once again need to find a solution to halt a cut of 10 percent to the physician payment rate in 2008."

In fact, the American Medical Association (AMA) reports, "Without congressional action, Medicare will cut physician payments nearly 40 percent over the next nine years, while practice costs increase at least 20 percent"—and in a 2006 poll, the AMA reported that 7 out of 10 American were not aware of the cuts, but when informed, 86% were concerned about the lack of care that will be available to Medicare patients. The AMA website http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/16792.html has posted an online content kit about these Medicare reimbursement issues.