ACR: Medicare physician fee schedule 'insufficient' to keep pace with inflation
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Key takeaways:
- CMS will reduce its Medicare conversion factor from $33.89 to $32.74 in 2024.
- The ACR said it is “disappointed” in the new physician fee schedule and called on CMS for more “appropriate reimbursement.”
The looming cut to the CMS conversion factor in 2024 means that payments for physician services may not be enough to keep up with inflation, the American College of Rheumatology said in a press release.
“Patient access to care should come first, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for providers to continue offering accessible and high-quality care with the cuts we’re seeing,” ACR President Douglas White, MD, PhD, said in the release. “We now ask Congress to intervene to ensure that the Medicare payment policy more accurately reflects the impact of the broader economy on physician practices and ensures appropriate reimbursement.”
CMS announced last week that next year’s physician fee schedule will reduce its conversion factor for Medicare payments from $33.89 to $32.74. It said the decision was part of “a broader administration-wide strategy to create a more equitable health care system that results in better access to care, quality, affordability and innovation.”
ACR said in its release that it was “disappointed” that the reduction “fails to account for rising inflation” in the United States, and added the cuts could hamper patient access to care by undermining medical practices’ finances, intensifying health care workforce shortages and harming “the already strained payment system.”
The cuts are “a recipe for financial instability,” American Medical Associated President Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, MD, PhD, said in a separate press release.
“Patients and physicians will wonder why such thin gruel is being served,” Ehrenfeld said. “When adjusted for inflation, Medicare physician payment already has effectively declined 26% from 2001 to 2023 before additional inflation and these cuts are factored in.”
References:
- Calendar Year (CY) 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule. https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/calendar-year-cy-2024-medicare-physician-fee-schedule-final-rule. Published Nov. 2, 2023. Accessed Nov. 6, 2023.
- Medicare payment cuts “thin gruel” for seniors, physicians. https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/medicare-payment-cuts-thin-gruel-seniors-physicians. Published Nov. 2, 2023. Accessed Nov. 6, 2023.
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