Council endorses 2.7% increase in Medicare payments.(Practice Trends)

WASHINGTON -- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should not institute the 4.3% decrease proposed in the 2006 physician fee schedule, a federal advisory panel recommended.

As it works to fix the sustainable growth rate, CMS should, instead, adopt the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's recent recommendation to increase payments by 2.7% to keep pace with the cost of care, the Practicing Physicians Advisory Council recommended.

The council meets quarterly to advise the Department of Health and Human Services on proposed changes in Medicare regulations and carrier manual instructions related to physicians' services.

MedPAC advises Congress in a similar manner.

Physician reimbursements under Medicare will be cut 26% over the next 6 years unless the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula is changed. Although the PPAC recommendation calls on CMS to take action, only Congress has the statutory authority to fix the formula.

The average physician facing these cuts "is stuck," Ronald Castellanos, M.D., PPAC chairman, told CMS officials who presented a summary of the proposed fee schedule at the meeting. Reductions in Medicare payments have forced some physicians to do ancillary procedures in their offices to make up for the lost income, he said.

Leroy Sprang, M.D., an ob.gyn. who was recently named to the panel, said he's seen at least a dozen ob.gyns. in his area of Evanston, Ill., leave the profession due to the pressures of medical malpractice combined with reduced Medicare payments. While they don't deal with older patients as much as do other primary care physicians, some ob.gyn. practices have stopped seeing Medicare patients, he said.