Legislation to avert shutdown included increase in Medicare physician payments
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- The Consolidated Appropriations Act passed by Congress earlier this month addressed planned cuts in Medicare payments to physicians.
- The legislation increased the statutory conversion factor adjustment.
Legislation approved earlier this month by Congress and the Biden administration to avert a government shutdown included a measure to reduce the impact of planned Medicare payment cuts to physicians for 2024.
According to the Renal Physicians Association, the Consolidated Appropriations Act included a provision that became effective on March 9 that raises the Medicare conversion factor (CF) by 1.68% for the rest of 2024. “As a result, the CF is expected to be approximately $33.29 for the rest of 2024,” the association said in RPA Weekly eNews.
The change equates to $730 million in relief from Medicare payment cuts for this year, according to congressional sources.
“As a cardiothoracic surgeon for more than 15 years, I was proud to fight for reimbursement that ensures physicians can afford to operate independent practices and care for Medicare patients,” U.S. Rep. Larry Bucshon, MD, R-Ind., who voted for the bill, said in a press release. “While it is unfortunate that budgetary constraints did not allow us to mitigate the full reimbursement cut for 2024, I appreciate the hard work of Republican leadership to negotiate with their counterparts to ensure a partial fix was included.
“It is clear there is bipartisan support for ensuring that providers are properly compensated for caring for seniors, and I will continue to advocate for action to halt the downward spiral of physician reimbursement and develop a permanent solution for America’s doctors,” Bucshon said in the release.
Medicare physicians were facing a 3.37% cut in payment on Jan. 1. The AMA advocated for removing the planned cuts and supported the Preserving Seniors’ Access to Physicians Act, H.R. 6683, introduced by U.S. Rep. Greg F. Murphy, MD, R-N.C., which would have eliminated the full payment cut.
“Washington spends a lot of time talking about protecting health care access for Medicare patients, yet year after year, makes it more difficult for doctors to take care of them,” Murphy, a practicing urologist, said in a press release introducing the legislation in December 2023. “This bill takes action on a critical issue others refuse to do – pays physicians, who serve Medicare patients out of the goodness of their hearts, because Medicare payments simply don’t pay for the cost of care.
“I am past done with the onslaught of cuts made by politicians and unelected bureaucrats who regard doctors and patients as little more than cogs in the wheels of health care,” Murphy said. “Sooner, rather than later, physicians are just going to stop taking Medicare. ... This is one more step towards fixing the broken Medicare system.”
References:
Congress includes partial physician payment relief in initial FY 2024 funding bill. https://www.multibriefs.com/briefs/rpa/rpa031324.php. Published March 13, 2024. Accessed March 14, 2024.
Legislation introduced to eliminate Medicare physician pay cuts. https://www.healio.com/news/nephrology/20231214/legislation-introduced-to-eliminate-medicare-physician-payment-cuts. Published Dec. 14, 2023. Accessed March 14, 2024.
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts