Doc Fix

Doc Fix

A component of a lower-spending compromise bill put before the US Senate after the initially proposed $140 billion Medicare finance package failed to pass (June 2010). The compromise bill would have cost $118 billion, delayed planned cuts in Medicare services, and provided a 2.2% raise in physician reimbursement (the ‘doc fix’) through November (2010). The latter bill also failed to pass, initiating a scheduled 21.3% reduction in reimbursement to physicians and other health providers. A survey of 9,000 members of the American Medical Association revealed that 31% of physicians in primary care would stop seeing Medicare patients because the rates of reimbursement were too low