46
HEALTHCARE
NEWS
Will CMS physician pay cuts ever happen?
By Laura Dyrda
P
otential Medicare pay cuts associat-
ed with the 2010 sequestration have
loomed large on Capitol Hill for the
last decade, but lawmakers continue to kick
the can down the road.
e initial pay cuts were implemented in 2013
as part of the sequester cuts, with Medicare
cutting physician pay 2 percent. But the cuts
have been stalled to avoid lowering physician
pay. Physicians again dodged the across-the-
board reimbursement reductions set for Jan.
1 when President Joe Biden signed a bill pro-
tecting current pay rates through March 31.
Will the cuts ever go through? Or will they
continue to be used as leverage in budget dis-
cussions perpetually?
"ese automatic cuts should remind mem-
bers of the needed reforms. Congress can get
a head start on doing the right thing when it
reconvenes early next year," American Med-
ical Association President Gerald Harmon,
MD, said in December.
e sequester cuts are now coupled with oth-
er reimbursement reduction efforts, totaling
about 9 percent, if legislators don't act to
avoid them.
It seems Congress and the president are con-
tent to use the pay cuts as a bargaining chip,
with big consequences if they are implement-
ed.
Richard Menger, MD, assistant professor of
neurosurgery and assistant professor of po-
litical science at the University of South Al-
abama, argued in an editorial published by
e Hill that reducing physician pay, which
comprises 20 percent of Medicare spending,
would force more consolidation in the in-
dustry. Especially amid the pandemic, when
many independent physician practices with
tight margins suffered financially, CMS pay
cuts would be devastating.
e Biden administration hasn't been partic-
ularly friendly to ASCs or independent phy-
sicians this year.
"CMS penalized the healthcare industry by
shiing procedures safely performed at ASCs
to the hospital without much clinical evi-
dence or outcome data," said Chhaya Patel,
MD, medical director of ambulatory anesthe-
sia and assistant professor at Emory School of
Medicine in Atlanta, told Becker's. "Another
gut punch to the physicians [would be] the
physician payment cuts in the midst of this
pandemic at a time when physician practices
are still recovering the personal and finan-
cial impacts of the COVID-19 public health
emergency. We must continue to advocate for
our patients to provide safe, accessible and
cost-efficient care." n
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