American Academy of Family Physicians Demands Higher Medicare Payments

The American Academy of Family Physicians has sent a letter to the American Medical Association demanding that Medicare payments to primary care physicians be changed, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The AAFP has said the AMA's Relative Value Scale Update Committee, the group responsible for setting Medicare physician payments, places a higher value on work done by specialists and should add more members to its panel that represent primary care physician groups, the report said.

According to a 2010 Medicare Payment Advisory Commission report, primary care physicians would make $101 per hour if all of their work was paid at Medicare rates, the worst of any physician category. Surgeons would make $161, and specialists who conduct nonsurgical procedures would make $214, the report said.

The AAFP has set a deadline of March 1, 2012, for the RUC to respond.

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