Several U.S. medical societies, including the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), have sent a letter to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) asking CMS to reconsider changing clinical labor pricing as described in the proposed 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS).
CMS has proposed an update to clinical labor pricing in 2022. However, the societies wrote, that information was last updated back in 2002. Making the update as recommended would lead to decreases elsewhere, a shift that could cause practice expenses to drop from 5% to 20% for echocardiography, advanced imaging and other key services provided in a non-facility office setting.
“Based on $11.5 billion in Medicare allowed practice expense direct costs, we estimate the ‘price tag’ for updating the clinical labor rates in CY 2022 will be approximately $3.5 billion,” the groups wrote. “Due to budget neutrality constraints, the CY2022 scaling factor to account for this dramatic rise in direct practice expense costs is proposed to fall drastically to 0.44, from 0.59, an unprecedented rate.”
The societies urged CMS to consider adjusting the direct scaling factor, consider the effect of making drastic changes after 20 years as opposed to gradually over time and provide a thorough cost estimate for its clinical labor proposal.
Finally, the letter asks CMS to slow down its timeline and skip making such an impactful change in the 2022 MPFS.
“The undersigned organizations are advocates for cost effective, efficient and safe healthcare,” the groups wrote. “The clinical labor proposal, as written, if implemented, will jeopardize the delivery of care to Medicare beneficiaries.”
Read the letter here. The ACC’s summary of its stance can be read here.
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Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.