USPA Applauds Bipartisan Letter To Reverse Clinical Labor Cuts

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, United Specialists for Patient Access (USPA) announced its full support of the bipartisan letter calling on the leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate to address the clinical labor cuts initiated by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

The letter, spearheaded by U.S. Representatives Bobby L. Rush (D-IL) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), contains the names of 63 House members asking congressional leadership to fix this issue in the upcoming omnibus appropriations legislation.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE LETTER.

The Democrats and Republicans who signed the letter make it clear that the devastating 20% cuts to specialty care in the finalized Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) Rule for 2022 pose a significant threat to patients and office-based providers. In addition, they agree the PFS is "desperately in need of reform" and that Congress must "include relief to office-based specialists in the upcoming omnibus appropriations legislation to protect access to care for Medicare patients."

The letter states, in part: "These 'clinical labor' cuts are the most significant negative impact of the 2022 Physician Fee Schedule by far and are expected to cut reimbursement by more than 20 percent for some specialties. Frankly, these cuts threaten to undermine efforts to address health inequity, accelerate health system consolidation, and weaken our ability to deal with the pandemic."

Last week, USPA issued a stakeholder letter that included 18 organizations encouraging House members to join the Rush-Bilirakis effort. View it here.

BACKGROUND:

On November 19, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the CY22 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) final rule, which contains huge 20 percent cuts to specialty providers as a result of the so-called "clinical labor" update. These cuts follow on the heels of the CY21 PFS final rule which included an across-the-board cut to the conversion factor of 10 percent.

While, S. 610, the Protecting Medicare and American Farmers from Sequester Cuts Act, passed in December of 2021, provided one year of relief from most of the 3.75% cut to the conversion factor that was scheduled to take place on January 1, 2022, cuts of more than 20% for office-based specialists under the 2022 Physician Fee Schedule were left unaddressed.

SOURCE United Specialists for Patient Access (USPA)