{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://stansbury.house.gov/media/press-releases/reps-stansbury-leger-fernandez-urge-congress-prevent-looming-medicare-cuts", "Reps. Stansbury, Leger Fern\u00e1ndez Urge Congress to Prevent Looming Medicare Cuts", "2022-12-19", "2022", "2022-12", "Democrat", "House", "NM", "Melanie A. Stansbury", "S001218", "stansbury.house.gov", "stansbury", "https://stansbury.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Representatives Melanie Stansbury (N.M.-01) and Teresa Leger Fern\u00e1ndez (N.M.-03), joined 113 Members of Congress in a bipartisan letter to President Biden and House and Senate leadership urging swift action to prevent looming Medicare cuts.\n\nReps. Stansbury and Leger Fern\u00e1ndez joined their colleagues urging action to prevent Medicare reimbursement cuts of over 8%. The cuts would cut back on the health care that the over 440,000 Medicare recipients in New Mexico depend on, particularly devastating to rural communities. The lawmakers\u2019 letter comes as workforce shortages, supply chain issues, and the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to have a significant impact on the capacity of health care providers across New Mexico and the nation.\n\n\u201cWe have heard from provider organizations that if these additional Medicare cuts are not prevented, medical groups and integrated systems of care would be forced to eliminate services, furlough staff, implement hiring freezes, and delay population health initiatives,\u201d the lawmakers wrote.\n\n\u201cThe combination of skyrocketing expenses, significant staffing shortages, and looming cuts to Medicare payments will only make a bad situation far worse \u2013 especially for seniors in rural and underserved areas who continue to face health care access issues,\u201d the lawmakers concluded. \u201cPhysicians, in particular, do not receive inflationary updates in the Medicare program and, as a result, we urge Congressional intervention to prevent the entirety of these cuts. Anything short of this is still a cut that hurts providers and the patients that they treat.\u201d\n\nReps. Stansbury and Leger Fern\u00e1ndez joined the letter by led by Representatives Susan Wild (D-Pa.-07) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, M.D. (R-Iowa-02) alongside a bipartisan group of 111 colleagues.\n\nThe following organizations support this letter: the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Hospital Association (AHA), the American Medical Group Association (AMGA), the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS), the American College of Surgeons (ACS), the Surgical Care Coalition, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH), the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and the Society of Interventional Radiology, Iowa Hospital Association, Lehigh Valley Health Network.\n\nThe full text of the letter is available below:\n\nDear President Biden, Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McConnell, Speaker Pelosi, and Minority Leader McCarthy,\n\nWe write today as a bipartisan group of lawmakers urging you to act quickly to prevent the more than 8 percent cut in Medicare reimbursement that will directly impact patients in this country. Reducing Medicare payments by more than 8 percent, which comes on the heels of the 2 percent sequestration cut resuming earlier this year, would directly harm our nation\u2019s medical groups, physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers who care for our communities.\n\nAs you know, in addition to the 2 percent Medicare sequestration cut that went into full effect in July, these drastic reimbursement reductions are being driven by the 4 percent Statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) requirement and the 4.47 percent cut to the Medicare conversion factor which affects many health care providers, including physicians. Compounded by workforce shortages, increased costs and supply chain issues, and the ongoing ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic, these cuts will impact the ability of providers to care for their patients. In fact, we have heard from provider organizations that if these additional Medicare cuts are not prevented, medical groups and integrated systems of care would be forced to eliminate services, furlough staff, implement hiring freezes, and delay population health initiatives. Congress must ensure that Medicare providers continue to have the necessary financial support to care for our nation\u2019s seniors who rely on Medicare.\n\nProviders will face cuts of more than 10 percent to Medicare payments on Jan. 1, 2023, which includes the 2 percent sequestration policy already in effect. We are opposed to paying for preventing these cuts with additional provider cuts. The combination of skyrocketing expenses, significant staffing shortages and looming cuts to Medicare payments will only make a bad situation far worse \u2013 especially for seniors in rural and underserved areas who continue to face health care access issues. Physicians, in particular, do not receive inflationary updates in the Medicare program and, as a result, we urge Congressional intervention to prevent the entirety of these cuts. Anything short of this is still a cut that hurts providers and the patients that they treat. We appreciate your attention to this critical issue and look forward to working together to ensure these cuts are prevented.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T03:32:05Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://stansbury.house.gov/media/press-releases/reps-stansbury-leger-fernandez-urge-congress-prevent-looming-medicare-cuts"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8698003366589546, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}