Members of the Riverside County Medical Association executive committee joined more than 600 physicians at February's American Medical Association National Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C.

I attended with Drs. Lawrence Clark, Delmer Henninger, Steven Larson and Rebecca Patchin, and Dolores Green, RCMA executive director. Together, we all learned about the political climate affecting America's broken healthcare system and lobbied the 110th Congress for change.

An all-star roster of speakers addressed the group. MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews discussed the new political landscape in Washington and how it impacts the AMA's agenda and advocacy efforts. Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) addressed the nation's uninsured crisis and discussed their plans to solve this growing problem. Reps. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) discussed how the dramatic shift on Capitol Hill will affect Medicare reform. We also heard leading healthcare industry authorities share their organizations' plans to reform the system.

In addition, the RCMA executive committee met with Mary Bono and Ken Calvert, our local members of Congress. We discussed major factors affecting practicing physicians in Riverside County and the need to fix Medicare's physician payment formula.

The Congressional Budget Office recently forecasted that Medicare physician payment rates would be reduced by 10 percent in 2008 under current law. A 2006 Medicare Trustees report predicts a cumulative reduction in Medicare physician payment rates of nearly 40 percent by 2015. These successive annual reductions are due to a statutory formula governing annual Medicare payment updates that is broken beyond repair and must be replaced. We impressed upon our representatives that it is critical to implement a permanent, long-term replacement for this payment formula.

We also discussed the growing strain of caring for the uninsured in Riverside County and the need for additional funds to offset the tremendous costs our local hospitals and physicians bear in providing unfunded care. Bono and Calvert committed to working with the RCMA's new Hospital Transfer Coalition on this issue. Both asked to be invited to our meetings and the healthcare forum being planned to tackle the problem.

Despite the flight delays in returning from Washington on the now infamous Valentine's Day snowstorm, we were energized by what we learned and will continue to fight these battles on your behalf.