Legislation also provides physicians with a positive 0.5 percent update

WASHINGTON –In the final days of the current session, Congress has passed a temporary fix to halt a scheduled 10.1 percent 2008 Medicare fee cut for physicians, while providing physicians with a positive 0.5 percent update on Jan. 1. The measure, which President Bush is expected to sign, provides a six-month delay of the immediate Medicare physician payment cut.

 “We are gratified that Congress acted in time to halt the scheduled cut, said H. Dunbar Hoskins, Jr., MD, executive vice president of the Academy. “However, we are deeply disappointed that the fix is only temporary, adding to uncertainty among physicians and Medicare patients. We will continue to work to convince Congress on the need for stability and a multi-year solution to this ongoing issue.”

In addition to temporarily stopping the physician fee cut and providing a positive update, the legislations also extends the expiring incentive payments for rural physicians through June 30, 2008. A bonus for physician quality reporting also is extended for the next several years. Ophthalmologists will uniquely benefit from the Academy’s work to obtain changes in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ 2008 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule that improved payments for eye visit codes. That change, announced last month, increases payments to ophthalmologists by $154 million. Altogether with today’s Congressional action, ophthalmologists, on average should see payment increases of 1.5 percent on Jan. 1.

Congressional leaders failed this year to agree on adequate funding sources for two years of positive updates for physicians, despite the unified efforts of the Academy, the AMA, and numerous other groups to aggressively seek early action.  Congress must return to the issue again by June 2008 to stop even greater cuts scheduled to take place on July 1, 2008 and Jan. 1, 2009.

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About the American Academy of Ophthalmology
AAO is the world's largest association of eye physicians and surgeons—Eye M.D.s—with more than 27,000 members worldwide.  Eye health care is provided by the three “O’s” – opticians, optometrists and ophthalmologists. It is the ophthalmologist, or Eye M.D., who can treat it all: eye diseases and injuries, and perform eye surgery. To find an Eye M.D. in your area, visit the Academy's Web site at www.aao.org.