There are 223,962 Medicare patients in Maine who may be at risk of reduced access to care

As the nation recovers from the long holiday weekend, seniors and their physicians have little to celebrate. Procedural tactics in the Senate thwarted efforts to halt a harsh 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments for physician services that began July 1, which will surely affect access to health care.

Legislation that would have updated physician payments to help address the increasing cost of patient care sailed through the U.S. House of Representatives with an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 355 to 59, and then failed in the Senate by one vote.

It’s time to put politics aside and do what is right for patients. There’s long been bipartisan support to stop the cuts, and the bill that passed the House (H.R. 6331) should be considered and passed by the Senate. In fact, there is not much difference between this bill and one introduced earlier by Sen. Grassley, one of the leading Republican senators on health care issues. Both bills replace 18 months of payment cuts with updates, and both phase out double payments to Medicare Advantage plans for indirect medical education.

In Maine, there are 223,962 Medicare patients at risk of reduced access to care if the Senate does not immediately take action when they return to Washington after the Independence Day holiday. A full 60 percent of physicians nationwide say this year’s cut will force them to limit the number of new Medicare patients they can treat.

Active duty and retired military members, plus their families, are also hurt by the cuts because their government insurance, TRICARE, ties physician payment rates to Medicare. The Military Officers Association of American and the Military Coalition have urged Congress to stop the cuts in order to preserve access to care for military families.

AARP, representing older Americans, is activating its members to support H.R. 6331. This issue affects many more folks than just the seniors who rely on Medicare now. The first wave of baby boomers begins aging into Medicare in three years when they reach age 65, and if the cuts aren’t stopped there are real fears that physicians will be unable to care for the boomers once they start relying on Medicare.

Only the health insurers appear content with the status quo. Why? Because the private Medicare plans are making money hand over fist for insurance executives and Wall Street. Their steep opposition to the legislation is puzzling as the bill does not cut payment rates for Medicare Advantage private fee-for-service plans, and it maintains patients’ choice of Medicare insurance in rural areas. It does eliminate duplicate payments for medical education that the insurers receive, and it brings needed transparency to the program.

The key thing this bill does – and the reason it is supported by physicians and patients – is that it replaces 18 months of cuts with payment updates that reflect increasing practice costs. In June alone, more than 41,000 patients and physicians contacted their members of Congress and asked them to act through the AMA’s Patients Action Network. Without Senate action to stop the cuts the promise of Medicare – that it will be a viable insurer for our nation’s seniors – will be broken.

Breaking that promise is the last thing physicians and Maine’s senators want. Both Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins did the right thing and voted for the bill to move forward. The bill will come up for a second vote after the congressional recess, and America’s physicians call on the Senate to pass H.R. 6331 to preserve seniors’ access to care.

Dr. Nancy Nielsen is president of the American Medical Association.