Important Update: Congress Eases Medicare Cuts in End-of-Year Package

Yesterday, Congress passed an end-of-year COVID-19 stimulus package with a provision to ease the drastic Medicare cuts to physical & occupational therapy that are set to go into effect on January 1, 2021!

This legislation will delay reimbursement cuts and inject additional funding into the CY2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, which will reduce cuts to physical therapy from 9% to a projected 3.6%. We are pleased that Congress recognized the severity of Medicare’s planned cuts and took steps to ease payment reductions for 2021, which will surely help preserve Medicare beneficiaries’ access to specialty services during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

This wouldn’t have been possible without your hard work. Thank you for your continued support and tireless efforts to ensure that lawmakers understood how devastating these cuts will be for providers and patients!

While this critical development will help to stabilize America’s healthcare system during the ongoing public health emergency, we know more work must be done to make providers whole again.

As we look toward the new year, with the new Administration and the new 117th Congress, we will continue our efforts to protect physical and occupational therapy patients and providers. Stay tuned for updates on how you can help!

Thanks again and happy holidays from all of us at the Alliance for Physical Therapy Quality and Innovation.