Doctor pay hike left out of must-pass government funding bill

Physicians looking to Congress for relief from falling Medicare payments may have to keep waiting.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) unveiled what's known as a continuing resolution, or CR, on Saturday to keep the government open through the end of fiscal 2025 on Sept. 30, and Congress may vote on the measure as soon as Tuesday. The legislation does not address the 2.9% Medicare reimbursement cut for physicians that took effect Jan. 1.

Related: House sets up potential Medicaid cuts with budget bill passage

The Johnson legislation would, however, extend telehealth and hospital-at-home authorities under Medicare and delay cuts to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments for safety-net providers. The bill also includes six-month funding extensions for community health centers, graduate medical education and other health programs that are due to expire on March 31.

Those extensions are shorter than proposed in the healthcare package that was dropped from the funding bill enacted in December, which also would have boosted Medicare rates to doctors.

The American Medical Association harshly criticized the new funding bill in a news release Sunday.

“Physicians across the country are outraged that Congress’s proposed spending package locks in a devastating fifth consecutive year of Medicare cuts, threatening access to care for 66 million Medicare patients," AMA President Dr. Bruce Scott said in the release. "Despite repeated warnings, lawmakers are once again ignoring the dire consequences of these cuts and their impact both on patients and the private practices struggling to keep their doors open."

According to the AMA, medical practice costs are 3.5% higher this year alone and Medicare reimbursements are 33% lower than in 2001, adjusted for inflation.

"It is time for members of the House of Representatives to take a stand to protect Medicare patient access by insisting language addressing the 2025 Medicare physician payment cut be added to the full year CR before the vote," the AMA, the American College of Physicians, the American College of Surgeons, the American Academy of Family Physicians and dozens of other medical societies wrote in a letter to congressional leaders Monday.

Whether the funding measure can pass and stave off at least a partial government shutdown when current funding expires on March 14 is unclear.

President Donald Trump called on his party to back the bill in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Saturday. "All Republicans should vote (Please!) YES next week," Trump wrote. "We have to remain UNITED — NO DISSENT — Fight for another day when the timing is right. VERY IMPORTANT. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Republican leaders characterize the measure as a "clean" CR that mostly extends current funding levels, which Democrats counter is insufficient. The minority party also objects to budget cuts and new policies in some areas, particularly provisions to facilitate the efforts of Trump's billionaire adviser Elon Musk to slash government programs.

If House Democrats hold together, Johnson can only afford to lose two Republican votes because the GOP has a slim 218-214 majority in the lower chamber.

There may already be at least two House GOP votes against the temporary funding measure.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who routinely defies his party leadership on stopgap funding bills because he favors deeper spending cuts, announced his opposition to Johnson's package in a post on the social media platform X on Sunday. "Unless I get a lobotomy Monday that causes me to forget what I’ve witnessed the past 12 years, I’ll be a NO on the CR this week," he wrote.

Another, Rep. Dr. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.), has vowed to oppose any spending bills that don't include a Medicare payment increase for physicians. A spokesperson declined to comment Monday.

Murphy and Rep. Dr. John Joyce (R-Pa.), co-chairs of the GOP Doctors Caucus, endorsed an AMA-backed bill Thursday called the Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act of 2025 that would replace the 2025 cut with a 2% increase from April 1 through the end of the calendar year.

The continuing resolution also has to pass the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority. Senate Democrats have pledged to unite against the legislation, which would need 60 votes to end a Democratic filibuster.

Senate Democrats demand that Republicans negotiate a bipartisan bill that runs through the end of the fiscal year, and pass a short-term measure in the meantime.

“Instead of working with Democrats to invest in working families and communities all across America, Speaker Johnson has rolled out a slush fund continuing resolution that would give Donald Trump and Elon Musk more power over federal spending — and more power to pick winners and losers, which threatens families in blue and red states alike," Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray (D-Wash) said in a news release Saturday.