Dear Speaker Pelosi and Leader McCarthy,
We write to bring to your attention a matter of great urgency. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
will be issuing new payment policies in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for 2021. The changes have
many positive attributes, including improvements for maternity care and much-needed payment increases for
physicians delivering primary and complex office-based care to some of our nation’s most vulnerable
patients.
Unfortunately, a statutory budget neutrality rule requires that any increases in Medicare payments for these
office visits, also known as evaluation and management (E/M) services, must be offset by corresponding
decreases. As a result, many specialists now face substantial cuts beginning on January 1, 2021, if Congress
does not act before the end of the year. Payment cuts of this magnitude will surely strain a health care system
that is already stressed by the COVID-19 pandemic and could jeopardize patient access to medically
necessary services.
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