Lobbying groups for doctors are urging Congress to reverse impending cuts to their Medicare pay in the new year, warning that slashing pay will worsen physician staffing shortages around the country.
Health care providers have urged Congress to prevent cuts that go into effect Jan. 1, which they say will eventually limit older adults’ access to doctors. Hospitals are worried they won’t be able to hire more doctors in 2024, instead putting more work on staff, according to Arjun Venkatesh, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine.
“We are in a health care system right now that’s quite broken; where hospitals are at an extreme capacity, access to care is really impossible,” Venkatesh said. “And if you put payment cuts on top of that, that means that we have even fewer folks to take care of people.”
Medicare moved in November to cut payments to physicians and clinicians by an average of 1.25% next year. It’s not the first cut doctors have faced: adjusting for inflation, Medicare physician payments have declined 26% from 2001 to 2023, according to datafrom the American Medical Association.
The AMA and other organizations have made reversing these cuts a major priority. AMA revealed on Oct. 30 that they’ve sent 150 letters to Congress advocating for this cause. Both the House and Senate left Washington for the year without addressing these planned Medicare cuts, so they are set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2024.
Cuts to Medicare pay don’t typically mean seniors lose access to their doctors, but could mean physicians see fewer new Medicare patients, Martin Corry, chair of government relations and public policy at Hooper Lundy & Bookman, a health care law firm, said.
“But, it can obviously affect how many Medicare patients they want to serve going forward,” said Corry, who used to be the special assistant to the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Read more from Jalen Brown.
BIDEN’S AGENDA
- President Joe Biden has no public events today.
CONGRESS’ SCHEDULE
- The House and Senate are out until January.
Defense & Foreign Affairs
THE WHITE HOUSE announced $250 million in weapons and equipment for Ukraine, its final package for the year, as officials press Congress to renew aid in the new year.
- The package, drawn from Pentagon stocks, includes ammunition for artillery and air defense systems as well as anti-armor munitions and more than 15 million rounds of small arms ammunition.
- The Defense Department said in a press release that Javelin anti-tank systems and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles would be among the weapons offered. Read More
PRESIDENT BIDEN said US troops struck targets in Iraq to prevent further attacks on American personnel in the Middle East, which have fueled concerns about a wider regional conflict. Read More
ANTONY BLINKEN spoke with his Philippine counterpart yesterday to discuss tensions in the South China Sea and the US commitment to the Philippines under a mutual defense treaty. Read More
People, Power, and Politics
BOMBSHELL reporting about Supreme Court justices accepting lavish gifts made judicial ethics a focus this year for congressional Democrats, who offered bill after bill targeting the high court.
- Democratic efforts to force a code of ethics—and increase transparency across the judiciary—had largely languished even before the justices adopted their own conduct standard in November.
- Still, 2023 has been “one of the most significant years ever” for judicial ethics, said Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Read More
REP. LAUREN BOEBERT says she’s running in a different district for reelection next year.
The Colorado Republican has represented the state’s Third District since 2021. She intends to move to the heavily Republican Fourth District and seek the seat now held by Ken Buck, who is retiring. Read More
MICHIGAN’S Supreme Court left intact a ruling allowing Donald Trump to stay on the state’s GOP primary ballot next year despite his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Read More
REP. JOHN CURTIS is preparing to launch a bid for the Senate in the first week of January, Reuters reported of the Utah Republican seeking to succeed outgoing Sen. Mitt Romney (R). Read More
HERB KOHL, who served four terms as a Democratic senator from Wisconsin after running his family’s eponymous retail and grocery stores, has died. He was 88. Read More
What Else We’re Watching
THE FDA is set to move forward in 2024 on long-awaited rules and guidances, spurred on by an election year that comes amid a legal battle at the US Supreme Court over the agency’s actions. Read More
A PLAN to equip school districts with clean buses could be hindered by a lack of vehicle charging stations, the Environmental Protection Agency’s internal watchdog said yesterday. Read More
APPLE said it would put its latest smartwatch models back on sale in its US retail stores after it won a court ruling in a patent fight, providing a quick reprieve for its $17 billion business. Read More
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