An estimated 1,000 physicians on Tuesday are expected to attend a two-day conference in Washington, D.C., to begin lobbying lawmakers to prevent a 10.6% Medicare fee cut scheduled to take effect July 1, The Hill reports. Since 2002, the formula used by CMS to calculate physicians' fees for treating Medicare beneficiaries has required that the government reduce the payments, but since 2003, Congress has passed legislation to curb the cuts each year.

The American Medical Association, which is hosting the conference, and other medical societies say physicians already are not paid enough to treat Medicare beneficiaries and costs are rising. AMA Board Chair Edward Langston in a statement said, "Time is of the essence as this year's cut of 10.6% starts in July, and 60% of physicians say this cut will force them to limit the number of new Medicare patients they can treat." Despite warnings from AMA, research by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and others has not found a shortage of physicians who will treat Medicare beneficiaries, The Hill reports.

According to The Hill, "The options available [to delay the cuts] are not pretty, neither for Congress nor the doctors. They aren't cheap, either, even for the most modest, short-term fixes." A permanent fix would cost about $50 billion over five years, The Hill reports. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that curbing the cut for the rest of the year with no increase to physician fees would cost $2.1 billion and, under the least expensive method, physicians would face a 15% cut in 2009. If Congress curbed the cut from July 1 through Dec. 31, 2009, it would cost $8.1 billion and require a 20% cut in 2010.

According to The Hill, the group's lobbying expenditures reflect the importance of stopping the fee cut. AMA last year spent $22 million on lobbying -- the most ever spent by the group for that purpose, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (Young, The Hill, 3/31).