The AMA strongly supports moves in Congress that would adjust Medicare physician payment to rise with the rate of practice-cost inflation while warning that Medicaid proposals in the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s budget-reconciliation text would add administrative complexity and lead to coverage interruptions that especially affect Americans with low incomes and those living in rural areas.

In response to the budget-reconciliation text released Sunday night, AMA Executive Vice President and CEO James L. Madara, MD, wrote in strong support of section 44304 of the committee’s recommendations, which “provides the first Medicare physician payment update that is permanently built into baseline Medicare rates since the passage of the Medicare and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) in 2015.” Such a change was recommended by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and would link Medicare physician payments to the Medicare Economic Index (MEI).

My latest for the AMA. Read the whole shebang, which also addresses the impact of proposed Medicaid changes.