Sally Pipes: "Medicare's Physician Pay Cut Will Cost Patients"

The following is an excerpt from an article by Sally Pipes, Founder & Chair of the Benjamin Rush Institute, published in Newsmax. Click here to read the full article in your browser.

The Trump administration has released Medicare’s proposed physician payment rule for 2027. Buried in the hundreds of pages of technical regulations is a familiar outcome --- another cut in what physicians will be paid to care for seniors.

Under the proposal, Medicare’s basic payment rate would fall by as much as 1.7%.

That may sound like a minor budgeting issue. It isn’t. Repeated payment cuts make it harder for Medicare beneficiaries to find a doctor — and place more independent practices under pressure to sell to hospitals.

The latest cut is part of a years-long decline in what Medicare pays doctors. According to the American Medical Association, Medicare physician payments, adjusted for practice-cost inflation, fell 33% between 2001 and 2025.

Unlike hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, hospices, and many other Medicare providers, physicians do not receive regular annual payment updates tied to rising practice costs.

Instead, Congress has repeatedly resorted to temporary patches to soften payment cuts while physician practices absorb rising costs for staff, rent, supplies, technology, and malpractice insurance.

Most businesses can raise prices when their costs rise.

Physicians treating Medicare beneficiaries cannot.

Washington sets the price.

Practices must either absorb the loss or find ways to cut costs elsewhere.

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