ACA Medicare bonus to primary care docs set to expire

Some primary care providers are warning that Medicare beneficiaries may have more trouble seeing a doctor next year after the expiration of an ACA-created 10 percent bonus payment to doctors for caring for Medicare patients (Source: “End Of Medicare Bonus Program Will Cut Pay To Primary Care Doctors,” Kaiser Health News, Nov. 24, 2015) 

Others providers, however, say the program has had little impact on their practices, if they were aware of it at all.

The incentive program began in 2011 and was designed to address disparities in Medicare reimbursements between primary care physicians and specialists. It distributed $664 million in bonuses in 2012, the most recent year that figures are available, to roughly 170,000 primary care practitioners, awarding each an average of $3,938, according to a 2014 report by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.