From Baker County to Yamhill, Oregon is facing a serious shortage of doctors. With dozens of federally-designated Health Professional Shortage Areas across the state, we need more doctors to help increase Oregonians’ access to treatment and improve their health. Rural residents, in particular, want to go to doctors closer to home, but often struggle to find physicians in their communities forcing them to wait longer for care or forego it altogether.

This is especially worrying when it comes to chronic diseases. Today, more than half of Oregonians are living with at least one chronic health condition, many of whom rely on the Medicare program to help manage and treat these life-threatening diseases.

As an oncologist in Central Oregon, I see patients battling cancer or a chronic disease, who cannot afford to wait. Many forms of cancer are entirely treatable, especially if they are caught early. The longer one waits to be seen, the more time tumors have to grow, increasing the risk of death and other dangerous complications. My colleagues and I work overtime to take care of these vulnerable patients, but it’s the folks I don’t see that worry me the most; the ones who aren’t able to make an appointment at all because there are too few health care providers in our state.

We don’t have to look far to see how physicians, particularly in rural areas, are being driven out of practice – leaving patients with few options for care. Just recently, a multi-specialty physician group in Idaho, which had been in business since 1961, shuttered multiple clinics due to ongoing financial challenges. Sadly, these stories are only set to become more common as financial headwinds accelerate, leaving the rural residents of Oregon, Idaho, and beyond to travel far distances to receive both preventive and emergency care.

The solution — to incentivize doctors to enter, and remain, in the physician workforce — is obvious. But policies made in our nation’s capital are getting in the way. If not addressed quickly, these policies — including a series of devastating Medicare cuts — will further exacerbate the physician shortage plaguing most of our country.

On January 1, the Medicare program rang in the new year with an alarming 3.37% cut to physician reimbursement. This marks the third year in a row that doctors like me have faced across-the-board Medicare cuts.

While the full impact has yet to be felt, many practices are worried that skyrocketing costs and lagging reimbursement will make it impossible to make ends meet. Rather than continuing to lose money for each Medicare beneficiary treated, many doctors may simply decide to stop accepting patients enrolled in this vital safety net program. Meanwhile, others may find it too difficult to keep their doors open; and in the long-run, many students will re-think their dreams to enter the medical profession.

We are at an inflection point: Medicare pay rates have declined by 29% since 2001 and the U.S. faces a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034.

Thankfully, lawmakers are starting to take note. Earlier this year, Congress took a promising first step to alleviate the latest cut that went into effect for 2024. And, during a recent hearing on the need for Medicare reform, Senator Wyden noted that “the way traditional Medicare pays physicians to manage and treat these [chronic illnesses] has not kept up with the times.”

Now lawmakers need to come together and implement permanent fix. One long-term solution, the Strengthening Medicare for Patients and Providers Act (HR 2474), would go a long way to stabilizing the system. By tying annual Medicare updates to a measure of inflation, the bipartisan bill would ensure that doctors are reimbursed appropriately for their work and in line with how other types of Medicare providers are compensated. This is fair for everyone; and most importantly, it helps keeps physicians afloat, bringing us one step closer to alleviating the national doctor shortage.

Rural parts of Oregon especially need this. My patients cannot wait for care. What will they do if Medicare cuts further erode patient access to care?

Dr. William Schmidt is a practicing oncologist at Summit Health, providing cancer care for Central and Eastern Oregon.

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