In particular, the code for low-dose lung cancer screening has been replaced, with financial implications for physicians. 

The specialty has seen a decline in available MIPS metrics in recent years, as the feds have "topped out" those with extremely high national performance, experts said. 

CMS had originally planned to kick off the mandatory bundled-payment effort in July, but will now punt the go-live date to Jan. 1, 2022. 

Lawmakers also finalized a long-discussed ban on surprise medical bills and pushed back the radiation oncology payment model's go-live date.

Congress approved the measure on Dec. 21, targeting out-of-network radiology care with a new arbitration process. 

Lawmakers are pushing to include the measure in an end-of-year legislative package, but practice leaders are worried they're moving too fast. 

Organizations including the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging voiced their support for S. 5007 in a letter written to five Republican senators on Monday

The bill mirrors the “Holding Providers Harmless from Medicare Cuts During COVID-19 Act of 2020,” previously introduced in the House and favored by rads.