ACR among dozens of doc groups urging feds to forgo looming Medicare cuts
The American College of Radiology is among 50 healthcare-related groups urging Congress to stave off looming Medicare cuts in the physician fee schedule.
Back in December, lawmakers reached a bipartisan deal to blunt such reductions in provider pay. That included delaying 2% Medicare sequester cuts—automatic reductions in federal spending—for the first three months of 2022. However, with April around the corner, 1% cuts are set to hit physicians’ wallets for the three months that follow, with the full sequestration impact arriving July 1.
ACR, the American Medical Association and groups representing cardiologists, neurologists and surgeons, among others, want congressional leaders to extend the pause on sequestration while providers continue battling COVID-19.
“The resumption of the Medicare sequester before the end of the [public health emergency] would unnecessarily hinder our caregiving abilities, especially when the emergence of a new, potentially more dangerous and/or contagious variant continues to loom,” ACR and others wrote in a Feb. 28 letter to leaders in the U.S. House and Senate. “Consequently, we urge you to extend the current 2% Medicare sequester moratorium for the duration of the COVID-19 PHE, and to take action before April 1 when sequestration is scheduled to resume.”
In place since March 2020, the emergency declaration has been extended several times since then. President Joseph Biden did so again on Feb. 18, pushing the PHE past March 1. At the time, the White House noted that COVID “continues to cause significant risk to the public health and safety of the nation.” Congress is slated to consider federal spending bills this month, presenting a possible “legislative vehicle” to address the sequester cuts, ACR noted in a March 3 news update. The college also noted there is a likelihood the emergency order will be renewed in April.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.