DeLauro Votes to Avert Medicare Physician Cuts, Guarantee Seniors’ Access to Care

Washington, DC— Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) voted today to avert a scheduled 21 percent fee reduction for physicians and replace the flawed Medicare physician payment system with a new approach to ensure fairness and stability in physician payments.

H.R. 3961, the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009, will repeal the outdated Sustainable Growth Rate formula with a stable system that ends the cycle of threats of ever-larger fee cuts followed by short-term patches.

Congresswoman DeLauro said, "Connecticut's physicians work hard to provide high-quality care to seniors, day in and day out. They deserve a stable, secure and common-sense payment system so they can focus on what they do best – taking care of people. This bill will not only create a 21st-Century approach to guaranteeing quality, promoting primary care access, and encouraging team-based, coordinated care -- it also helps to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries continue to enjoy the excellent access to care that they do today."