Assessing Impact of Medicare Cuts

Floor Speech

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Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Murphy for bringing us together tonight. I am here tonight not just because I am a Member of Congress from the 26th Congressional District, but I am also a doc. I practiced for 25 years back home. I am a Medicare patient. I know firsthand how hard it can be to find a doctor that still accepts Medicare.

I will tell you, there is nothing more injurious to our medical system here in this country than the repetitive cuts that this administration has delivered to the doctors of this country.

In November, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized a 3.5 percent cut in physician payments for this year, 2024, a decision that took place on January 1 of this year, a blow to the very backbone of our healthcare.

As a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, we had an actual historic event last month. We marked up a doc fix and a budget neutrality bill.

The GOP Doctors Caucus and the Energy and Commerce Committee took action to address the challenges by passing H.R. 6545, which was the Physician Fee Schedule Update and Improvements Act. That bill includes a conversion factor update as well as provisions from H.R. 6371, the Provider Reimbursement Stability Act, also led by the GOP Doctors Caucus.

These provisions make needed changes to the budget neutrality requirement, allowing for long-term sustainability within the physician fee schedule. These are significant steps, and the urgency cannot be overstated.

On January 1, those lower rates went into effect. CMS has said they are going to hold payments until Congress acts, but if we don't act pretty darn quick, they will have to remit at the lower level. The doctors can never go back and recoup the money that they should have been paid.

This is a crisis that is not necessary. We can fix this. We can fix this in the CR. Unfortunately, congressional Democrats, the minority leader on the House side, and the Finance Committee chairman on the Senate side are blocking this very simple fix from occurring. It is wrong. It needs to change.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for holding this Special Order hour.

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