The Sound Bite:

Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio) said in a written statement, following the passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, that the Band-Aid used to avoid cuts to physicians from the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR), or “doc fix,” was “paid for by cutting provider payments for treating illnesses disproportionately impacting minorities, including end stage renal disease and diabetes.”

Fact or Fiction?

Fact. On January 1, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 averted a 27 percent pay cut slated to hit doctors in 2013 because of the SGR. The $30 billion price tag of that patch, however, is offset in the bill by cuts in reimbursement to other Medicare providers and services over the next 10 years.

It’s unknown how big of an impact some of the cuts to pay for the “doc fix” will have on Medicare beneficiaries, especially minorities, but it’s clear some of the provisions in the law affect certain health care providers serving the poor and people of color.

For example, part of the fix is a provision to reprice costs for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) drugs under the bundled payment system, as recommended by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). This will result in $4.9 billion in savings.

Katrina Russell, president of the National Renal Administrators Association, told the American Medical News in December 2012 that making the cuts based on the GAO recommendations “would impose great financial strain on (smaller dialysis organizations) and could lead to fewer choices and access to care problems for patients.”

According to the American Diabetes Association, blacks are 1.8 times more likely to have diabetes than whites; and that 1 in 4 blacks between the ages of 65 and 74 have diabetes. Blacks are also more likely to develop complications, such as blindness and kidney disease, from diabetes than whites.

In addition, Congress also cut $4.2 billion from the payments made by Medicaid, the states’ program for low-income Americans. The poverty rates of blacks and Hispanics are 35 percent and 33 percent, respectively, compared to 13 percent for whites, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

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