Congress won’t avert cuts in Medicare payments to doctors, to their dismay

Doctors had been hoping that Congress might put the brakes on cuts in Medicare payments to physicians, and it appears they’re going to be disappointed.

Bruce A. Scott, MD, president of the American Medical Association, criticizes Congress for not acting to avert cuts in Medicare payments to doctors.

As Congress works on a federal spending package to finance government programs, the American Medical Association says lawmakers aren’t preventing Medicare’s reductions in payments to doctors. Congress is facing a March 14 deadline to approve a spending package to keep the government running.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services approved a 2.8% cut in payments to doctors for 2025. Advocacy groups for doctors and hospitals urged lawmakers to reverse the cuts, and some lawmakers had pushed legislation to halt the reductions. But the AMA says the reduced payments remain in the spending package, continuing a string of cuts for five years.

Bruce A. Scott, MD, president of the American Medical Association, slammed Congress for failing to take action. Physician groups have said the continued reduction in payments is hurting practices and prompting some doctors to stop taking Medicare payments.

“Physicians across the country are outraged that Congress’s proposed spending package locks in a devastating fifth consecutive year of Medicare cuts, threatening access to care for 66 million Medicare patients,” Scott said in a statement. “Despite repeated warnings, lawmakers are once again ignoring the dire consequences of these cuts and their impact both on patients and the private practices struggling to keep their doors open.”

Scott added that the cuts are “particularly devastating for rural and underserved communities. These physicians and their patients have borne the brunt of the rising practice costs – 3.5 percent this year according to Medicare’s own estimate.”

“Let me be clear: these unsustainable cuts will force more practices to close and leave patients with fewer options for care,” Scott said in a statement.

The Medical Group Management Association has also assailed lawmakers for not moving to block the reductions in Medicare payments. The group is urging Congress to re-consider before any final vote on the spending package and said the legislation released by House leadership over the weekend is “unacceptable.”

“Failure to do so would mean another year of unkept promises to physicians, signaling little regard for medical practices or our nation's seniors,” the MGMA said in a statement Monday.

Healthcare advocacy groups criticized lawmakers for including the reduced Medicare payments to doctors in the short-term spending plan Congress and President Biden signed off on in late December.

Doctors were especially disappointed because an earlier draft of the spending package in December averted most of the cuts; that plan would have imposed a 0.3% cut in Medicare payments. However, lawmakers scrapped that package when President Trump and Elon Musk criticized the spending plan, prompting lawmakers to revise it.

Doctors have called on Congress to revamp the way Medicare reimburses physicians. The AMA and other groups have said that Medicare needs to include the cost of inflation for doctors as CMS devises its payments to physicians.

U.S. Reps. Greg Murphy, MD, a Republican from North Carolina, and Jimmy Panetta, a Democrat from California, have sponsored a bipartisan bill to avert the Medicare payment cuts to physicians.

Healthcare groups are also calling on Congress to preserve funding for Medicaid, which provides critical aid for hospitals. Fitch Ratings said last week that Medicaid cuts could reverse the recovery of the nonprofit hospital sector. Hospitals have said that if Medicaid is cut, they will end up providing more uncompensated care, adding to their cost pressures.