MedPAC Report Recommends Physician Pay Freeze Should Remain
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on Medicare payments to health care providers and health plans, issued a report on Tuesday that recommends that Medicare should not make any changes to physician fee schedule payments for 2023.
According to the nearly 600-page report from MedPAC, “Medicare’s payments for clinician services are adequate. … Although clinicians have experienced declines in their Medicare service volume and revenue due to the pandemic, the Congress has provided tens of billions of dollars in relief funds to clinicians during the [public health emergency], and we expect volume and revenue to rebound to pre-pandemic levels (or higher) by 2023.”
In response to the report findings, the American Medical Association issued a warning to congressional leaders that the MedPAC decision “contained a flawed analysis that would imperil patient access to high-quality care,” according to the AMA.
In 2020, there was a $13.9 billion decrease in Medicare physician fee schedule spending as patients delayed treatments, according to AMA findings.
The AMA indicates that the analysis of data from the Medicare Trustees included in the MedPAC report shows that Medicare physician payment has been reduced 20%, adjusted for inflation, from 2001-2021.
That analysis, according to the AMA, does not include the recent inflationary spike, and the Medicare physician payment system lacks an adequate annual physician payment update similar to other Medicare providers.
The AMA letter recommends Congress establish a stable, annual Medicare physician payment update that keeps pace with inflation and practice costs.
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