- The Honorable Mike Johnson
Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
H-232, The Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20515 - The Honorable Hakeem Jeffries
Minority Leader
U.S. House of Representatives
H-204, The Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Speaker Johnson and Minority Leader Jeffries:
The undersigned bipartisan members of Congress write to urge you to expeditiously pass legislative fixes that not only stop another damaging round of cuts to Medicare payments, but also provide greater certainty and stability for clinicians serving Medicare beneficiaries. On July 10, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Calendar Year (CY) 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) Proposed Rule that includes provisions subjecting all physicians and other clinicians treating Medicare patients to a 2.8 percent payment cut.1 In lieu of these harmful cuts, which, absent federal legislation, will take effect on January 1, 2025, Congress must pass a bill providing physicians and other clinicians with a payment update that takes into account the cost of actually delivering care to patients.
The scheduled 2.8 percent reduction represents the fifth consecutive year that CMS issued a fee schedule regulation that lowers payments to physician and other clinicians. While Congress has stepped in the past four years to pass legislation to mitigate portions of these cuts, the fact remains that the MPFS is inherently broken. Continued payment cuts undermine the ability of independent clinical practices — especially in rural and underserved areas — to care for their community, which reduces patient access to care. The continued cuts have forced medical groups and integrated systems of care to make difficult choices, such as imposing hiring freezes, delaying system improvements, delaying implementation of care model changes including transitions to value-based care systems, and possibly eliminating services.2 Because healthcare often comprises a large percentage of employment in rural areas, the closure of independent practices not only lessens patient access to care but also jeopardizes the livelihood of rural Americans.
Click here to view the full House Members Urge Leaders to Prevent Medicare Payment Cuts.
