What Does This Mean for Healthcare Policy?
Although portions of the 8.5% Medicare physician reimbursement cut scheduled for 2023 were averted, the remaining 2% across-the-board reduction comes on the heels of two decades of stagnant payment rates. After adjusting for inflation in practice costs, Medicare physician pay dropped by 22% between 2001 and 2021.
The ACR will advocate for an inflation-based annual update to the Medicare physician payment system. This logical adjustment is automatic and yields a yearly increase for hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and others who bill Medicare, but not physicians who treat Medicare patients.
Congress should also reassess the financial burden imposed on physician practices by the budget neutrality rules and avoid the ACR’s annual, end-of-year scramble to avoid cuts. It should implement reforms centered on simplicity, predictability, relevance and alignment, as spelled out in the core principles released last year by the American Medical Association and supported by the ACR. The ACR’s first letter to this Congress asks for comprehensive reform of the Medicare payment system.
Medicare reimbursement is one of the ACR’s policy priorities for 2023, which also include addressing:
- Barriers to care, such as prior authorization, step therapy and copay accumulator policies;
- Workforce needs, including funding for training positions, student loan repayment and issues impacting international medical graduates and foreign-born professionals in the U.S. medical workforce;
- Drug pricing;
- Telehealth; and
- Research funding.
It’s important to know the committee assignments for your members of Congress. Hearing from constituents about the important topics they are working on in their committees can make a huge difference in legislative outcomes. All members of Congress can vote on the final version of a piece of healthcare legislation, the contents of those bills originate from, and are decided in, the committees with jurisdiction over the topic.
In the House, these are the:
- House Energy & Commerce Committee: This was the originating committee of the Affordable Care Act and has legislative oversight relating to telecommunications, consumer protection, food and drug safety, public health, air quality, environmental health, the supply and delivery of energy, cybersecurity and interstate and foreign commerce.
- The House Energy & Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Health is a primary group for ACR advocacy, because it has jurisdiction over the following relevant policy areas: private health insurance; medical malpractice and medical malpractice insurance; programs authorized under the Social Security Act, including Medicaid, Medicare Part B, child health, long-term care and peer review; the Department of Health & Human Services; the National Institutes of Health; the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention; and the Indian Health Service.
- The House Energy & Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Health is a primary group for ACR advocacy, because it has jurisdiction over the following relevant policy areas: private health insurance; medical malpractice and medical malpractice insurance; programs authorized under the Social Security Act, including Medicaid, Medicare Part B, child health, long-term care and peer review; the Department of Health & Human Services; the National Institutes of Health; the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention; and the Indian Health Service.