On March 8, House Republicans released a seven-month funding plan to avoid a government shutdown. The measure locked in a 2.83% cut CMS to physician pay for 2025, but Rep. Greg Murphy, MD, said his proposal to undo the pay cut is still viable.
In a March 10 post to X, Dr. Murphy said that “Speaker and Majority Leader agree for Doc Fix to be in Reconciliation. Hopefully long term.”
Dr. Murphy co-sponsored the Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act, which aimed to remove the cut to physician pay. Other physician advocacy groups have also voiced their pushback to the planned cut. “Today’s decision to allow the 2.8% cut to go forward is particularly devastating for rural and underserved communities,” American Medical Association President Bruce Scott, MD, said in a March 9 release. “These physicians and their patients have borne the brunt of the rising practice costs –3.5% this year according to Medicare’s own estimate. When adjusted for inflation, Medicare payment to physician practices has dropped 33% since 2001. Let me be clear: these unsustainable cuts will force more practices to close and leave patients with fewer options for care.”
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