AAO predicts decline in patient access without Medicare fee fix

WASHINGTON — The American Academy of Ophthalmology predicts a decline in patient access now that the Senate has failed to act on a Medicare physician fee fix this year. The Senate adjourned its lame-duck session Nov. 20 without acting on the fee fix passed earlier in the year by the House.

With a 5.4% cut in 2002 and another 4.4% cut slated for 2003, ophthalmologists are concerned that patients on Medicare will be denied access because of business, not medical, reasons.

“It’s my Medicare patients who are going to lose in this game that the Senate is playing,” said William Rich, III, MD, AAO secretary for federal affairs. “If another cut goes into effect, how can I continue to see my current case load of Medicare patients, let alone to see any new ones? … It will be our seniors who suffer the ultimate burden — no one to care for them when they need it most.”

“The medical community is tight in Nebraska, so I talk to a lot of other physicians who are saying the same thing we are — we don’t expect to make a lot of money off Medicare patients, but we don’t feel we should be forced to see them at a loss,” said AAO member William Schlichtemeier, MD.

“Eighty senators cosponsored legislation to fix the problem, yet the Senate has not acted. Ophthalmology’s case loads are mostly Medicare patients. We are trained to help people, and that’s what we want to do, but the reality is that we also are small business owners, and we have to make ends meet,” Dr. Rich said.