Imagine you have many jobs, but one of your bosses wanted to pay you 21.2 percent less to do one of them.

Do you keep the job or do you quit the job? That was a decision Memphis doctors had to make Wednesday.

Patients all have different kinds of insurance, and doctors get paid differently for each type. A bill before Congress could cut what doctors get paid by Medicare, the government’s insurance program for those age 65 and over, by 21.2 percent.

Wednesday was the deadline for doctors to decide whether they would continue to see Medicare patients for the year.

Dr. Anne Brown, an internist at Germantown’s Foundation Medical Group, said she will continue to see Medicare patients this year. But she said seeing Medicare patients has not yielded profits for her for several years.

“We can generate overhead at this point, but I cannot afford to pay my dear, sweet Medicare patients 21.2 percent of what I charge to come see me,” she said.

The House recently passed a bill that would delay the cuts to April 30. The Senate pushed the cuts back to October.

Lawmakers hope the extension will allow them to find a permanent solution that would avoid annual threats to cut physician payments. For many years Congress has mulled Medicare physician cuts but then voted for slight pay increases at the last minute.

“Every year for the past dozen years, Congress has used the hammer from the 1997 Balanced Budget Act to underpay physicians,” said Steve Coplon, chief administrative officer for Germantown’s Metropolitan Anesthesia Alliance.

With that, Coplon said, care to seniors is provided by physicians “substantially below cost.”

“The unwillingness of Congress to fix this issue has many physicians seriously considering dropping out of the Medicare program,” Coplon said.

— Toby Sells: 529-2742

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