Congress Must Act to Prevent Medicare Cuts
Action Needed as CMS Finalizes Conversion Factor Reduction
Alexandria, VA – AMGA today called on Congress to act to prevent significant cuts to Medicare payments from taking effect next year. With the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalizing a decrease in the conversion factor in the CY 2022 Physician Fee Schedule rule, Congress must intervene to ensure providers maintain their ability to deliver high-quality care to their patients.
“Now that the decrease in the conversion factor is official, AMGA members need Congress to recognize the gravity of the situation,” said AMGA President and CEO Jerry Penso, M.D., M.B.A. “The decrease in the Medicare conversion factor, along with the looming sequester and PAYGO cuts, will undermine the ability of AMGA members to care for their patients.”
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a reduction in the physician fee schedule conversion factor by 3.75%, the same amount that Congress temporarily increased Medicare payments to help offset the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. The conversion factor cut, however, is not occurring in isolation. Providers are currently facing the potential of up to a 10% cut to Medicare reimbursement at the end of the year. In addition to the 3.75% conversion factor cut, providers also are facing a 2% Medicare sequester and a 4% or $36 billion Medicare cut set to occur in January 2022 due to Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) offsets required by the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package passed earlier this year. Left unaddressed, providers will see Medicare cuts of up to a 10% at the end of the year. Congress needs to act to prevent these cuts from occurring.
“Failing to prevent these cuts could result in significant challenges,” Penso added. “Our members will need to make hard choices, and will need to consider hiring freezes and layoffs, as well as service line eliminations. It’s a critical situation, and Congress needs to treat it as such.”
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About AMGA
AMGA is a trade association leading the transformation of health care in America. Representing multispecialty medical groups and integrated systems of care, we advocate, educate, innovate, and empower our members to deliver the next level of high performance health. AMGA is the national voice promoting awareness of our members’ recognized excellence in the delivery of coordinated, high-quality, high-value care. Over 177,000 physicians practice in our member organizations, delivering care to more than one in three Americans.