Subject: Keep Physicians Serving Patients Act of 2019
Dear Representative Finkenauer,
On behalf of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the Congress of
Neurological Surgeons (CNS), representing more than 4,000 practicing neurosurgeons in the United
States, we are writing to support your legislation, the “Keep Physicians Serving Patients Act.” This bill
would improve the accuracy of data used to calculate Medicare’s practice expense and physician work
geographic practice cost indexes (GPCIs).
The AANS and the CNS have long supported efforts to ensure that physicians of all specialties and in all
regions of the country are fairly reimbursed for the medical services they deliver to Medicare
beneficiaries, and your legislation would improve payments to neurosurgeons practicing in rural areas. If
adopted, we are confident that this bill would help improve access to Medicare services provided to our
rural patients.
We are also supporting this bill because it makes clear that higher payments to physicians in low GPCI
areas would not come at the expense of physicians in higher GPCI areas. Our continued support for the
legislation is predicated on the fact that these payment increases will not be applied in a budget neutral
manner, so the proposal is fair to all physicians, regardless of where they practice.
Again, thank you for your leadership on this issue. We look forward to working with you on this and other
important health policy issues.
Read full letter here
