Congress last year passed legislation that prevents a 10-percent cut to Medicare physician payments; however, the legislative intervention is only temporary, and cuts to physician payments for Medicare services will take effect July 1, 2008.

The upcoming President’s Day Congressional recess (February 15-25) is an opportunity to reach out to your representatives in Congress and impress on them the importance of meeting their self-imposed deadline of July 1, 2008, for preventing cuts to Medicare that will endanger the access to care of millions of beneficiaries.

New advocacy resources, developed by the American Medical Association, which assist members when speaking with representatives on the continued need to prevent scheduled cuts, are available now. If you wish to contact your Congressional leaders during the President’s Day recess please contact Senior Health Policy and Government Affairs Analyst, Ted Thurn, at tthurn@aasm.org to receive the materials and for more information.