To the Editor:

In 2025, doctors in Massachusetts and across the US will see their Medicare payments cut by almost 3 percent under new regulations issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. For family members like me, who can be tasked with negotiating healthcare, this cut will directly impact the quality health care my family has come to depend on.

As a longtime municipal government employee, I understand the importance of balancing budgets, but we take into consideration the impact of payment changes on the people who will be affected.

I see how doctor payments impact my family’s health care. Cutting doctor payments can result in them no longer accepting Medicare patients, forcing us to manage the stress and frustration of finding new providers.

That’s why I am urging our congressional delegation to pass the Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act before the end of the current session. This bill would prevent the planned cuts from going into effect and would provide a 1.8 percent payment update in 2025.

Physicians are the only health care providers whose Medicare payments do not automatically receive an annual update to deal with inflation. Doctors tell me that they are getting squeezed from both sides, seeing reductions of 29 percent over the past 20 years. And this is on top of shouldering the skyrocketing cost of running a practice.

As a family caregiver with experience in the local health care system, I know how important it is to have a long and stable relationship with a doctor. Any cut in Medicare payments will make it harder for patients to continue to access timely and quality care.

Allyson Quinn
Dorchester