Recently there was a win for advocating for fairness with Medicare reimbursement. Thanks to organizations like ADVION and ordinary citizens speaking out and contacting their congressional delegates, the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 was approved and signed by President Biden in March.
So what was CAA 2024?
The Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 decreased the amount of payment cuts percentage to certain provers of billable services to Medicare Beneficiaries.
The Act has for the current year decreased the burden of cuts for Therapy service providers as well as portable Xray providers.
So what about next year?
The act only covers the scheduled cuts for this year and does not guarantee a lack of further cuts next year. Unfortunately that means the work is not yet done.
Where do we go from here?
Ultimately we need to keep pounding the pavement and keep fighting for a complete rewrite of a fee schedule. There needs to be a separate fee schedule based on the type of provider to keep things fair.
With the current layout of the physician fee schedule there is the rule to stay neutral so any increase in one segment needs to have a cut in another. So if a fee for something in the physicians office gets adjusted up, a Therapy or other provider code has a reimbursement cut.
It is time for reform
So please continue to follow the work of our great advocates and never give up making noise. We need a fair payment schedule that is reliable and tied to inflation to allow our Healthcare system to work and continue to provide needed services to our most vulnerable elderly population.
