Impacts of Medicare physician payment cuts in Kentucky

Original Link: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/399/sgr_states_ky.pdf

Kentucky physicians will lose $190 million for the care of elderly and disabled patients over the 18 months from July 2008 through December 2009 due to a 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments in July 2008 and an additional 5 percent cut in 2009. On average, each Kentucky physician faces a Medicare cut of $20,000 over this 18-month period. In addition, the state’s physicians will lose $3.7 billion for the care of elderly and disabled patients by 2016 due to nearly a decade of cuts for this important medical care.

41,528 employees, 655,883 Medicare patients and 159,979 TRICARE patients in Kentucky will be affected by these cuts.

Compared to the rest of the country, Kentucky, at 16 percent, has an above-average proportion of Medicare patients and, at 23 percent, has one of the highest proportions of disabled beneficiaries of any state. In addition, at 14 practicing physicians per 1,000 beneficiaries, has a below-average ratio of physicians to Medicare beneficiaries, even before the cuts take effect.

42 percent of Kentucky’s practicing physicians are over 50, an age at which surveys have shown many physicians consider reducing their patient care activities.

In July 2008, Kentucky physicians face cuts of an additional 1.8 percent on top of the 10.6 percent cuts across the country. The 2003 Medicare law provided a temporary increase in geographic payment adjustments for certain states. This increase also will expire on June 30, 2008 under current law.