Physicians battle Minnesota’s 3 percent pay cut
MINNEAPOLIS, April 10, 2008 - The MMA sent a letter Tuesday to members of the budget conference committee urging them not to pass a proposed 3 percent reimbursement cut for outpatient providers caring for patients with fee-for-service coverage.
Minnesota lawmakers, trying to cover an expected $935 million budget shortfall, slipped the 3 percent physician payment cut into the Senate supplemental budget bill right before it was passed. The provision is not included in the House’s budget bill. The budget conference committee that will decide the matter has been meeting since Tuesday, when the MMA sent out an Action Alert! to its members.
More than 100 physicians responded to the alert and told lawmakers that the proposed cut would put physicians caring for patients on public programs in a difficult financial position.
Physicians caring for Minnesotans on public programs haven’t received a reimbursement increase for nine years, and the physician fee schedule for public programs is based on the average charges nearly 20 years ago in 1989.
To see the letter the MMA sent to 10 lawmakers on the supplemental budget conference committee, Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, and Rep. Thomas Huntley, DFL-Duluth emphasized, click here:
Here is a summary of some of the points included in the letter signed by MMA President James J. Dehen Jr., M.D.:
• Physicians are committed to serving our low-income patients, but the 3 percent cut recommended in the Senate bill will make it difficult for those physicians who care for the disadvantaged to keep doing so.
• The impact of the cut will go beyond fee-for-service programs. Most of the public program managed care contracts automatically reduce physician payments if fee-for-service reimbursements get cut.
• Physicians caring for Minnesotans on public programs have not received a rate increase for nine years, since getting a 3 percent increase in 1999.
• These cuts will especially hurt urban and rural clinics, some of which have over half of their patients in Medicare, Medical Assistance, or MinnesotaCare.
• The physician fee schedule for public programs is based on the average charges in 1989.
• According to the Legislative Auditor’s report released in February, physicians caring for Minnesotans with public health care coverage receive only about 33 percent of submitted charges. The auditor was concerned that payment rates may compromise health care access and quality.