Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1439613
43 HEALTHCARE NEWS Physicians get temporary reprieve from Medicare cuts By Laura Dyrda P hysicians faced a Medicare pay cut next year of about 9 percent before President Joe Biden signed a bill Dec. 10 tempo- rarily averting the cuts. e Protecting Medicare and American Farmers from Sequester Cuts Act passed Congress with bipartisan support in December. e bill prevented across-the- board spending reductions until March 31. It also extended a pay increase under the physi- cian fee schedule. Since 2001, Medicare physician pay has dropped 20 percent, while the cost of running a practice increased 11 percent, according to the American Medical Association. e orga- nization, which represents physicians nation- wide, is in favor of halting the cuts and would like to see Congress further address flaws in the Medicare payment system. "ere is no need to wait for the last minute to start working on the systemic problems," AMA President Gerald Harmon, MD, said Dec. 9 aer the bill passed Congress. "ese automatic cuts should remind members of the needed reforms. Congress can get a head start on doing the right thing when it reconvenes early next year." Physicians and ASCs still are recovering from pay dips during the pandemic. Medicare spend- ing on ASCs dropped 90 percent in April 2020, when many ASCs limited procedures or tem- porarily closed. Medicare spending remained 4 percent to 15 percent lower than expected in 2020, and Medicare spending on physician services dropped $13.9 billion below expected levels, according to an AMA report published in December. n Medicare clarifies rule against physician self-referral for 2022: 3 details By Laura Dyrda C MS tightened regulations on physician self-referral and indirect com- pensation arrangements in its 2022 Medicare physician fee schedule final rule. The agency released the Modernizing and Clarifying the Physician Self-Refer- ral Regulations Final Rule in January 2021, which made changes to Stark Law, according to a JDSupra report authored by Matthew Westbrook, healthcare regulatory compliance associate at Proskauer. CMS has since discovered is- sues with the indirect compensation arrangements guidance, and further clar- ified those oversights in the 2022 Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule. Three details clarified in the final rule: 1. Indirect compensation arrangements exist if referring physician compen- sation depends on the volume or value of referrals for an entity providing designated health services, and the compensation unit isn't fair market value. Payment for leased office space or equipment used at the facility can also be considered indirect compensation. 2. CMS clarified an "individual unit" of physician pay as being based on the provided item, service or time. The individual unit of compensation only in- cludes services the physician provides, not services performed by a physician's employee, independent contracts, group practice members or any other indi- vidual. CMS made this change from the proposed rule "apparently in response to industry pushback," according to Mr. Westbrook. 3. The final rule prohibits the use of some service-based compensation formu- las in leasing office space or equipment, focused on formulas that base the per-unit charges on patient services provided to the lessor. n Biden administration to invest $1.5B in healthcare workforce By Ayla Ellison T he Biden administration is investing $1.5 billion from the COVID-19 aid package to address healthcare workforce shortages in underserved communities, the White House announced Nov. 22. The funding will go to the National Health Service Corps, Nurse Corps, and Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery programs, which address workforce shortages by providing scholarship and loan repayment funding for healthcare students if they agree to work in high-risk and underserved communities. The funding, provided through the American Rescue Plan, will support more than 22,700 providers, including physicians, nurses and dentists. The Biden administration also plans to award $330 million in funding for the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program. This additional funding will further support the expansion of the primary care physician and dental workforce in underserved communities through community-based res- idency programs. n