WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Thom Tillis and his colleagues recently introduced the Physician Fee Stabilization Act, legislation that would protect access to Medicare services by reforming the program’s physician fee schedule.
“The nearly two million Medicare beneficiaries in North Carolina expect timely access to quality care,” said Senator Tillis. “Year after year, we’ve seen consistent Medicare reimbursement cuts to physicians that adversely impact access to care and patient outcomes – and just last month, Medicare proposed yet another three percent cut to physician reimbursement. This bipartisan legislation makes long-overdue changes to outdated policies to ensure physicians are adequately reimbursed, and seniors have uninterrupted access to care.”
Background:
The Physician Fee Stabilization Act would increase the budget neutrality threshold to $53 million with an increase every five years to keep pace with the Medicare Economic Index. This is a critical step forward to ensure greater flexibility in determining pricing adjustments for services without triggering harmful annual payment cuts to Medicare-serving physicians. The budget neutrality threshold was last updated in 1992.
The Physician Fee Stabilization Act has support from nationwide health organizations including the American Medical Association (AMA), American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), American Optometric Association (AOA), Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), American College of Surgeons (ACS), American Osteopathic Association (AOA), National Rural Health Association (NRHA), American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM), American College of Radiology (ACR), American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS), American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), Alliance of Specialty Medicine (ASM), American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), American Urological Association (AUA), American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS), American Academy of Ophthalmology (AOA), American Psychiatric Association (APA), American College of Physicians (ACF), American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and American College of Cardiology (ACC).
Senator Tillis has been a long-time advocate of protecting access to Medicare services. In February, Senator Tillis joined a bipartisan effort to ensure providers who treat Medicare patients are adequately compensated.
Full text of the bill is available HERE.
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