Bipartisan bill offers big Medicare physician pay hike

Doctors and some bipartisan allies on Capitol Hill advanced their campaign to boost Medicare physician reimbursements with the release of new legislation Friday.

The Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act of 2025 would give doctors a 6.6% rate increase through 2026 and be retroactive to the beginning of this year, when a 2.9% cut took effect.

Related: Bust up Big Insurance, curb Medicare Advantage, Republican says

Lawmakers tried to forestall most of the 2025 reimbursement reduction in a government funding package eventually enacted in December. But billionaire, and adviser to President Donald Trump, Elon Musk led a revolt against the bill that included the "doc fix," and those provisions were dropped along with other healthcare measures.

The new bill is much more generous, and seeks to compensate doctors for what the American Medical Association and others characterize as decades of declining pay. The bill's authors estimate it would cost $3.6 billion, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has not evaluated it.

"The future of private practice medicine, the most cost-efficient and personalized care, is in dire straits," Rep. Dr. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.), the lead sponsor, said in a news release. "This bipartisan legislation prevents further cuts, provides a modest inflationary adjustment to help ease the cost of care and ensures Medicare remains viable for both doctors and patients."

Murphy's co-sponsors are Republican Reps. Dr. John Joyce (Pa.), Carol Miller (W.Va.), Dr. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa), and Claudia Tenney (N.Y.) and Democratic Reps. Dr. Ami Bera (Calif.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (Calif.), Jimmy Panetta (Calif.), Dr. Raul Ruiz (Calif.), and Dr. Kim Schrier (Wash.).

Murphy said in a recent interview that his support for a pending bill to fund the government and extend a variety of programs through fiscal 2025 is contingent on a Medicare pay increase for doctors.

A path forward for the doctor pay hike is not immediately clear.

The next government funding bill, which must pass by March 14 to prevent a partial shutdown, is an obvious vehicle. Supporters would likely have a greater chance getting Medicare physician reimbursements into that legislation than into a broader bill with many billions in healthcare cuts that Trump and GOP leaders are drafting on a partisan track.

The Murphy bill won instant support from physician groups, with the AMA and the Medical Group Management Association hailing the measure.

“This legislation would begin to roll back the cuts physician practices have faced over the last four years while we all have experienced high inflation,” AMA President Dr. Bruce Scott said in a news release. “As evidenced by this bipartisan legislation, lawmakers know the trend is unsustainable and, if left unaddressed, will ultimately harm their constituents."

According to an AMA analysis, Medicare physician reimbursements are 33% lower than in 2001, when adjusted for inflation.

"Physician practices are now a month into the new year, facing uncertainty and financial shortfalls from the congressional failure to reverse the 2025 Medicare fee schedule cuts," MGMA Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Anders Gilberg said in a statement. "Without immediate congressional action on this important legislation, more and more physician practices will be forced to close their doors, unable to keep up with rapidly rising staff salaries, rent and administrative costs.”