To my patients,
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 2010 Physician Fee Schedule has already reduced their payment of for echocardiography services by about 30 percent and still bigger cuts are proposed.
This year’s cut was primarily directed at the equipment, supplies, sonographer salaries, administrative costs, and other overhead costs of providing echo services.
Now, CMS is proposing another 42 percent reduction in Medicare payment for these costs, based entirely on the results of a practice expense survey completed by only 55 cardiologists. Virtually no information is available to the public regarding these 55 respondents – what type of practice they have, or whether they were at all representative of the group. By contrast, the survey data currently used to derive rates passed stringent statistical tests regarding reliability and representativeness.
The concept that cardiologists’ practice expenses went down by 40 percent over the past several years is ludicrous on its face.
This cut will directly affect the quality of my echocardiography services; I would be unable to maintain and upgrade equipment, hire and retain qualified cardiac sonographers, and otherwise sustain my practice. Please do not allow CMS to implement these changes in 2010. Please help physicians who love what they do to continue to deliver quality medicine.
Dr. Perry Franke is a Cardiovascular Disease Physician in Lake Success.
