BY SIERRA MARTIN
The context
Looking ahead
stay financially viable,” Venghaus said. If this trend continues, Callas said he thinks it will impact every field of medicine, but hurt the small rural practices the most. “I’m scared that you’re not going to have any physicians that will even see Medicare patients,” Callas said. “That’s what scares me. We’re seeing the trend now.”
As a result of the lack of Medicare reimburse- ment to physicians, doctors are having to turn away Medicare patients in order to keep up with the rising cost of operation, Texas Medical Associ- ation President Dr. Ray Callas said. “Last year, and this year, Medicare gave pay cuts, and in the setting of record inflation that’s made it extremely difficult for many practices to
Callas describes the Medicare payment system as “completely flawed” and is working with the TMA to advocate for Congress to pass two bills in order to end annual physician payment cuts. If passed, HR 6683 will increase payments under the Medicare physician fee schedule for 2024 by 4.62%–current law provides for a 1.25% increase. Additionally, if passed, HR 2474 bill would modify certain adjustments to payment amounts under the Medicare physician fee schedule, according to Congress.gov. “The federal government knows it’s a problem,” Callas said. “It’s not about physicians whining about money. It’s about being paid fairly for a job that we do so we can keep our doors open. ... Medicare, people paid into it their whole lives, they deserve to have physicians that can take care of them.”
A rising trend Texas, Florida and Oklahoma have the highest percentage of corporate-employed physicians and experienced the biggest increase in physician employment between 2019 and 2020.
Northeast
South Midwest
West
58.6%
51.3%
45.4%
44.3%
40.4%
26.1% 29.7%
19.4%
Percent of corporate- employed physicians
Percent of corporate- owned practices
SOURCE: PHYSICIANS ADVOCACY INSTITUTE/ COMMUNITY IMPACT
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