Impending Medicare Reimbursement Cuts: Action Needed

Deadline October 13, 2021

Dear Academy Member,

Effective January 1, 2022, clinicians will face the following Medicare financial cuts:

• Expiration of the current reprieve from the 2 percent budget sequester stemming from the Budget Control Act of 2011. Congress originally scheduled this policy to sunset in 2021 but it will now continue into 2030.
• Imposition of a 4 percent Statutory PAYGO sequester resulting from passage of the American Rescue Plan Act. Should lawmakers fail to act, it will mark the first time that Congress has failed to waive Statutory PAYGO.
• Expiration of the Congressionally enacted 3.75 percent temporary increase in the Medicare physician fee schedule (PFS) conversion factor to avoid payment cuts associated with budget neutrality adjustments tied to PFS policy changes.

A statutory freeze in annual Medicare PFS updates under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) that is scheduled to last until 2026, when updates resume at a rate of 0.25 percent a year indefinitely, a figure well below the rate of medical or consumer price index inflation.

These cuts would result in a combined 9.75 percent payment cut on January 1, 2022.

Representatives Ami Bera, MD (D-CA) and Larry Bucshon, MD (R-IN) are circulating a “Dear Colleague” letter to gain support from lawmakers to address these payment cuts. Contact your U.S. Representative and ask him or her to join Reps. Bera and Bucshon in the effort to fight these cuts. Let them know what cuts of this magnitude would mean for your patients and your practice.

As a constituent, your voice counts most!

THANK YOU for taking action today!