Medicare Payment Challenges Facing Surgical Care September 2024
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) continues to put forth annual regulations that exacerbate the underlying problems within the broken Medicare physician payment system. Furthermore, these policies negatively impact the ability of physician practices to invest in quality improvement efforts that benefit Medicare patients, or transition to alternative payment models when appropriate. Importantly, the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) is often the benchmark for determining payment rates for Medicaid and other payers. Thus, Medicare payment cuts have a cascading effect across payers, challenging physician practices’ ability to cover the cost of taking care of their patients.
While Congress considers long-term reforms to physician payment, it must exercise its oversight authority over Medicare payment policy to ensure a stable environment that allows multiple physician practice models — independent private practice or hospital/health system
employment — to thrive. Failure to do so will contribute to the ongoing, costly consolidations ofthe health care delivery system, hinder patient access to the physician of their choice, and hamper efforts to move toward safe, accountable, higher-quality care.
Click here to view the full Neurosurgery Joins Surgical Coalition in Statement on Medicare Payment Challenges.
