10/18/2023

GOP Doctors Caucus Releases Draft Reforms to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule

Federal Advocacy Update:

Earlier this month, the GOP Doctors Caucus released a discussion draft of legislation seeking to reform the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS).  In the press release, the Caucus outlined three main areas it hoped to address.

1. Changing the threshold for applying budget neutrality from $20 million to $53 million to reflect the increase in the Medicare Economic Index since the threshold was last updated.  
   
   
2. Creating a lookback period for overestimates or underestimates in MPFS spending to ensure that any over or underpayments are not carried over into future rates and require that CMS use the best data available when creating a prospective payment adjustment. 
   
   
3. Updating prices for direct expenses related to budget neutrality adjustments to more frequently and accurately update the costs used to calculate the Relative Value Units (RVUs). 

OSMA, the AMA, and other state and federal physician professional organizations look forward to working with the Caucus to advance this important legislation.

Read Full Caucus Press Release >

Read Full Discussion Draft >