Congress Renews Calls to Address Medicare Fee Schedule
Last December, Congress finalized the Medicare physician billing rates for 2022, which overruled nearly 10% of proposed cuts that would directly impact physician pay. You can read more about the medicare fee schedule’s final legislation in our recent post, Final Medicare Physician Billing Rates for 2022.
However, Congress was unable to make a decision concerning the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS), and postponed the proposed payment cuts to next year. Based on the legislation, the American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA) and 27 other health organizations sent a letter to Congress indicating how harmful these cuts would be to the health of millions of Americans, particularly those with chronic illnesses, senior citizens, and certain demographics.
Earlier this month, Congress renewed its call to address the Medicare fee schedule, which will directly impact radiologist reimbursement, as well as the potential to cut a large portion of core clinical services.
With these proposed cuts to reimbursement and professional services, the feds are looking to boost payments to benefit primary care and others who use clinical labor. However, this will come at a huge cost to professionals in the field, such as interventional radiologists and radiation oncologists.
Two representatives, Bobby Rush, D-Ill., and Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., are leading the charge with 61 lawmakers to urge House and Senate leaders to address these changes and vote against the proposed pay cuts.
In a February 8 letter sent to both parties in the House and Senate, Rush, Bilirakis, and colleagues wrote:
“These ‘clinical labor’ cuts are the most significant negative impact of the 2022 Physician Fee Schedule by far and are expected to cut reimbursement by more than 20 percent for some specialties.”
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