Preventing the 23% cut slated for Dec. 1 must be a top priority for HHS, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in remarks at the annual meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). The importance of stopping the cuts comes from the top, as President Obama himself stressed to Sebelius at a Cabinet meeting last week, Sebelius said.
"The single biggest step we can take to strengthen Medicare for seniors and disabled Americans is to make sure these disruptive cuts don't take effect," she said.
HHS supports the 13-month fix requested by the AMA, and wants a permanent fix as well, she said. These are goals of President Obama as well, according to Sebelius.
"As the President has said many times, we will ultimately need a permanent fix, so that the livelihoods of the hard-working doctors who care for seniors and people with disabilities are no longer subject to politics," she said. "But in the meantime, we don't want any doctor to be stuck in a limbo where they don't know week to week how much they'll be paid for the services they deliver."
Unfortunately, Obama and Sebelius are powerless to address the pay cut without action from Congress, which returns to a lame-duck session next week.