MedPAC OKs proposal to maintain 10% pay increase to primary care physicians

Members of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission approved a recommendation to maintain the 10 percent Medicare payment increase for primary care after it expires at the end of 2015, according to AAFP.

The proposal includes a per-beneficiary payment to primary care physicians and a reduction in payments to specialists for non-primary care services by 1.4 percent, according to the report.

The proposal aims to help address the gap between primary care physician payments and specialist payments. However, commissioners from MedPAC agreed maintaining the 10 percent increase is not enough incentive to drive more future physicians into primary care and head off the looming shortage.

The increased payments to primary care physicians could be part of further payment reform and replace the current sustainable growth rate formula, according to commissioner Kathy Buto, MPA. Ms. Buto suggested bundled payments, according to the report.

Primary care physicians earn a salary of $220,000 while non-surgical procedural specialists earn $475,000, according to MedPAC. This disparity may reveal fee schedule inaccuracies, according to the report.

"We're not moving fast enough or substantively enough to support primary care," Commissioner Craig Samitt, MD, MBA, told AAFP.

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