AAOS urges CMS to reform Medicare payment policy changes for 2024
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Key takeaways:
- The AAOS issued comments regarding concerns about the CMS proposed payment policy changes for 2024.
- The AAOS commented on the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, as well as outpatient and ASC payment systems.
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons has issued formal comments urging CMS to reform the proposed payment policy changes in the Medicare program for 2024, according to a press release.
The AAOS issued a letter to CMS regarding concerns about the 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) proposed rule, which includes a $32.75 conversion factor, a $1.14 decrease from the $33.89 conversion factor in 2023. According to the release, the AAOS is asking for future conversion factors to keep up with inflationary fluctuations of the U.S. economy.
The AAOS also issued a letter to CMS regarding hospital outpatient prospective payment and ASC payment systems, supporting the hospital market basket-based updates for ASCs.
Additionally, the AAOS proposed the adoption of a risk-standardized patient-reported outcome-based performance measure for outpatient total hip and knee arthroplasties.
“AAOS is committed to helping create an equitable health care system for patients and physicians. Therefore, we urge CMS to support a statutory fix that provides an annual inflationary update for physicians, akin to all other providers covered by the Medicare payment system,” Kevin J. Bozic, MD, MBA, FAAOS, president of AAOS, said in the release. “Orthopedic surgeons have been at the forefront of the transition to value-based care, and we are eager to work together to improve upon existing value-based payment and delivery models in the Medicare program. However, our ability to deliver high-quality musculoskeletal care is hampered by inflationary pressures on practice expense. By some estimates, the MPFS conversion factor would have been double the amount being currently proposed, had it kept up with inflation,” Bozic said.
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