Medicare’s Physician Payment System Impacts Rural Docs
RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis,
October 11, 2006
Medicare’s physician payment system has a substantial impact on rural
physicians, especially since 51 percent of rural doctors--compared with
44 percent of urban physicians--receive at least 38 percent of their
payments from Medicare, according to a report by RUPRI Center for Rural
Health Policy Analysis.
The report, “Medicare Physician
Payment: Impacts of Changes on Rural Physicians,” studied the effect of
the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of
2003 on physician payment rates in rural areas. It examined creating a
floor of 1.00 in the geographic practice cost index for work expense, as
well as establishing incentive payments for providing services in
shortage areas and bonuses for practicing in a physician scarcity area.
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