Thousands of Therapy Advocates Raise the Alarm About Proposed Medicare Cuts
In July, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced deep, across-the-board payment cuts to physical, occupational, and speech therapy as part of the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) Proposed Rule for CY2023.
APTQI and hundreds of other healthcare organizations were quick to raise concerns about the impact these cuts would have on providers and the Medicare beneficiaries who rely on them for care, but hearing from advocates like you is critical to influencing Medicare’s Final Rule.
Over the past month, we asked for your help reaching out to CMS to express concerns regarding these cuts, and you and your fellow advocates took action in awe-inspiring numbers!
Physical and occupational therapists in all 50 states, plus D.C., submitted more than 3,700 comment letters through our portal – breaking our previous record of comment letter submissions from 2020.
The importance of your grassroots efforts cannot be overestimated. By educating policymakers about the risks of more Medicare cuts to patient access to physical therapy services, we have a real chance to influence the outcome of the final rule.
But while we wait for a Final Rule from CMS, there is still more you can do to advocate for our profession.
Congress is currently considering legislation, the Stabilizing Medicare Access to Rehabilitation and Therapy (SMART) Act (H.R. 5536), that would stop the 15% payment cut for services provided by physical therapist assistants (PTAs) and occupational therapist assistants (OTAs) that went into effect on January 1st, 2022.
We hope you’ll send a letter to your Member of Congress urging them to support this important piece of legislation. Thank you all for your continued support. Your value is felt every day—not just in your practices and with your patients, but at CMS, on Capitol Hill, and beyond.