(CHAPEL HILL) — Saying that North Carolina stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars over the next two years if Congress doesn’t stop current plans to slash payments to physicians who care for Medicare patients, Democrat Jim Neal, a businessman and investment banker running for the U.S. Senate, today said his opponent should help stop the cuts scheduled to go into effect next year.

“We can quickly solve this crisis if Mrs. Dole and her fellow Republicans will just say ‘No’ to Big Insurance and ‘Yes’ to North Carolina seniors,” Neal said.

On January 1, 2008, the Bush-Cheney Administration’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are set to cut Medicare payments to physicians by 10.1 percent, with another five percent reduction planned for 2009. North Carolina faces additional cuts of 1.6 percent after the first of next year when a temporary adjustment in the current federal laws expires.

Neal called on his opponent to leverage support among her fellow lawmakers to eliminate the planned cuts as part of the U.S. Senate’s end-of-the-year budget negotiations.

Physicians who treat North Carolina’s 1.2 million Medicare patients will lose $460 million over the two years if nothing is done, according to the American Medical Association. (Note: link opens a PDF file) http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/399/sgr_states_nc.pdf

Neal warned that the Medicare cuts would also adversely affect North Carolina’s physician-to-population ratio, which is already below the national average. Thirty-six percent of the state’s practicing physicians are over 50 years old, an age at which surveys show many doctor consider reducing their workload and limiting the number of patients they see. Deep cuts in the payments they receive for providing vital health care services to seniors and disabled could accelerate the trends, he said.

Neal said Washington is subsidizing their political allies at big insurance companies through private fee-for-service programs and the new Medicare Advantage, which together receive an average of 12 percent more in taxpayer-funded resources than traditional Medicare.

The AMA, AARP, and other advocates for seniors estimate that the overpayments to insurance conglomerates totals at least $54 billion, undercutting patients and their doctors in traditional Medicare.

“Mrs. Dole and her fellow politicians can reverse the cuts scheduled to start next year by doing away with these billions of dollars in overpayments to their friends in the insurance industry,” Neal said.

The grandson of a carpenter, public school teacher and two mill workers, Neal was born in Greensboro in 1956, where he attended public school. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1978. Following graduation he joined Goldman Sachs as a financial analyst. He returned to school at the University of Chicago, where he earned an MBA and worked a series of part-time jobs to pay his way through school.

As an investment banker at Salomon Brothers, Neal earned a reputation for leadership and innovative strategies while advising Fortune 500 companies on how to play successful roles in a changing global economy. He also worked as a senior investment banker with E.F Hutton and Bear Stearns, serving clients that ranged from Bank of America and American Express to Lincoln National Corporation and Transamerica.

For the past two decades, Neal has focused his career on information technology and healthcare companies, including serving as chief executive officer of RxMarketplace.com, a start-up firm that helped pharmacists offer patients prescription drugs at more affordable prices. Since 2000, Neal has led several private companies prior to founding The Agema Group, a financial advisory firm based in Chapel Hill.

Neal has continued his active involvement in nonprofit groups and political initiatives. A member of the Board of Governors of the New School from 2002 to 2006, he also served as a national finance committee member for Wes Clark for President and the Kerry-Edwards campaigns, as well as acting as a national fundraiser for U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles in 2004.

Neal has served his community as an overnight volunteer at a homeless shelter, a lay minister to mentally ill residents of an assisted-care facility, and a sponsor of a post-war Vietnamese refugee family in alliance with the International Rescue Committee.

Neal lives in Chapel Hill with the younger of his two sons, Winston. The oldest, James, is currently working in New York City.