In New Letter to Lawmakers, Coalition of Leading Healthcare Organizations Urge Congress to Address Deep Medicare Cuts for Specialty Providers
Groups ask Congress to ensure provider stability and patient access for Medicare beneficiaries who require specialty services
Washington, D.C. –– The Alliance for Physical Therapy Quality and Innovation (APTQI) this week joined an influential coalition of organizations representing a broad range of more than one million healthcare providers to call on House and Senate lawmakers to address the critical deficiencies in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) and halt deep payment cuts to providers across the healthcare delivery system.
In a letter submitted to Members of the 117th Congress on February 22, the groups urged lawmakers to continue working to address severe Medicare cuts for specialty providers and address the budget neutrality requirement in the MPFS that threatens to impose arbitrary reductions to provider reimbursement unrelated to the cost of providing care.
Recognizing the successful bipartisan effort by Congress in late 2020 to reduce the level of MPFS cuts for 2021, the groups also encouraged lawmakers to address severe reimbursement reductions that are slated for 2022, 2023, and 2024. Without Congressional action, the impending MPFS cuts “will negatively impact patient care and diminish practitioners’ small businesses, further slowing our nation’s health and economic recovery from the pandemic,” the groups noted.
“As a leading organization that represents physical, occupational, and speech language therapists, which face significant reimbursement reductions, APTQI strongly supports the goals outlined in this letter,” said Nikesh Patel, PT, Executive Director of APTQI. “As harmful payment cuts loom on the horizon, we call on Congress to pass legislation to reform the MPFS and reverse these harmful payment policies before they go into effect in 2022.”
To read the full letter, click here.
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