Medicare 27.4% doctor pay cut set for 2012 unless Congress acts

Medicare 27.4% doctor pay cut set for 2012 unless Congress acts.

CMS says its hands are tied on the pay formula but agrees to scale back additional pay reductions planned for interpreting imaging scans.

The proposed fee schedule that was released earlier this year had projected a 29.5% cut in 2012 as mandated by a budgetary mechanism called the sustainable growth rate formula, but CMS revised the figure to 27.4% in the final rule. Despite the change, the fee schedule will serve as a stark reminder to Congress that there is a crisis in the Medicare program that only lawmakers can stop, said American Medical Association President Peter W. Carmel, MD.

Read more at: http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/11/14/gvl11114.htm