Faced with cuts in Medicare reimbursement, rising medical liability premiums, and an increased focus on quality improvement programs and reducing growth in imaging, there is no better time for Congress to hear from physicians. For more information on these critical issues, click on the links below.

Key Issues:

• Medicare Physician Payment
  Unless Congress acts this year, physicians will receive a 5.1 percent cut in Medicare physician payments on Jan. 1, 2007. ACC members need to tell Congress to pass legislation this year that will prevent a cut in 2007 and to fundamentally reform the current flawed payment system.
  
  
• In-Office Medical Imaging
  A new law imposed by the Deficit Reduction Act caps Medicare Part B reimbursement for imaging services at the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System rate. ACC members need to urge Congress to examine the appropriateness of this policy, and to refrain from further cuts in Medicare payments for imaging services or from imposing overly restrictive standards that could unreasonably limit seniors’ access to imaging services.
  
  
• Health Information Technology
  There are federal efforts underway to speed physicians’ adoption of health information technology (HIT) and legislation to foster HIT use has been approved by the House and Senate. ACC members must urge Congress to include in final HIT legislation sufficient federal financial assistance (tax credits, grants, Medicare add-on payments or loans) to drive the integration of electronic health records (EHRs) into physician practices and to send a bill to the President this year to be signed into law.