VIDEO: Medicare physician fee schedule ‘on an untenable track’
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DESTIN, Fla. — In this video exclusive, Robert W. Levin, MD, president of the Alliance for Transparent and Affordable Prescriptions, championed the American College of Rheumatology’s recent advocacy for an improved Medicare fee schedule.
“I think we all know that we have seen declining reimbursements, especially in the last few years,” Levin told Healio during the Congress of Clinical Rheumatology East. “It’s really just going on an untenable track.”
The ACR recently met with U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill to advocate for the passage of two bills reforming the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. Levin said he “applaud[s]” the effort, describing as “absolutely necessary” a bill linking fee schedule adjustments to inflation.
He also supported the second bill aimed at “budget neutrality,” which he said would address a problem in which whenever payments are added to Medicare, “they have to cut something else from the budget, which means cut something else from our fee schedule.”
“That’s ludicrous,” he added. “Everything is more expensive, and there is no excuse for us to take cuts in our Medicare rates. This is an unfortunate situation that absolutely needs to be corrected.”
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Healio Interview
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