Last year the debate focused on Medicare relating to health care reform. However, the changes to the health care program for seniors and the disabled which were widely known were the $575 billion in cuts to the program.

These cuts raise the fear of resulting in reduced benefits or access to heath care providers. But this is not the only way in which the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will affect the seniors.

Clete DiGiovanni, MD, and Robert Moffit, Ph.D., in recent Heritage research laid out some of the other important changes to Medicare which could chellenge the doctor-patient relationship and undercut physician autonomy.

DiGiovanni and Moffit write, “The key issue, to be resolved through regulation, is the precise relationship between providers’ reimbursement and plan coverage and the findings of comparative effectiveness research.. statutory conditions are not to be construed as “preventing” the Secretary from using such evidence in determining coverage or reimbursement.”

The latest health care law is likely to disrupt the relationship between doctors and patients.