While payments under the physician fee schedule have sunk lower and lower since the 1990s, the Government Accountability Office says access has more than stabilized - it's improved.
Spurred by physicians' predictions that a 5.4 percent pay reduction in 2002 would spell trouble for patients, the GAO looked at trends in physician claims data. Surprise: The percentage of beneficiaries who received services increased from April 2000 to April 2002 in both urban and rural areas, according to a Feb. 9 report, "Medicare Beneficiary Access" (GAO-05-145R).
The average number of office visits - which the GAO says is a key indicator of beneficiaries' access to the "entry point" of the entire health care system - also rose for fee-for-service beneficiaries.
The study also found that in 2002 there was a small increase in the number of services performed by participating physicians who submit claims on assignment. Meanwhile, the percentage of unassigned claims - which require doctors to balance bill beneficiaries - fell by 0.4 percent.