21% Pay Cut May Force Physicians To Stop Seeing Medicare Patients

Mazer says the nation's physician spending budget is calculated to include these expensive drug products. He likened it to a parent who is given $1,000 a month to raise a child in a home when the electricity bill alone costs $1,000 a month.

It was a smaller problem when there were few such drugs that were administered, and the cost was lower. But now, Mazer says, an increasing number of costly drugs are required by an increasing number of patients and the burden on physician practices is unsustainable.

Mazer says that if the correction does not pass or seems to falter in coming weeks, he sees a "White Coat March around the Capitol," with thousands of physicians from across the country flying to Washington to make their point.

"We can not tolerate this any further," Mazer says.

H.R. 3961 has powerful support. "It is time to stop passing short-term fixes for massive payment cuts that hurt physicians and threaten Medicare access for seniors and people with disabilities," says Rep. Pete Stark, D-CA, Ways and Means Health Subcommittee chairman. "This bill will make the payment system work better not just for physicians, but also taxpayers, beneficiaries and the Medicare system as a whole."

Added Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Chair Frank Pallone, D-NJ, "Democrats have been calling for a permanent fix to the Medicare physician payment problem for years. We have now taken one long step toward ensuring that America's doctors are paid fairly for quality healthcare services they provide to seniors and the disabled.