Final CMS rule will harm patient access to care, which has already been significantly impacted by the pandemic
WASHINGTON, DC (November 2, 2021): The Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) final rule released today by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), scheduled to take effect in less than two months, will limit patient access to care at a time when the health care system is already destabilized due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The final rule includes a harmful 3.75 percent cut to surgeons and surgical practices. The American College of Surgeons (ACS) calls on Congress to reverse these significant cuts that will hurt patients and their providers.
"Surgeons and their patients have already been significantly impacted by the pandemic," said ACS Executive Director David B. Hoyt, MD, FACS. "These Medicare cuts will further exacerbate our pandemic-strained health care system and cause further delay in care to the patients who need it most."
This cut means that on January 1, 2022, a 3.75 percent cut, combined with automatic Medicare cuts, will slash Medicare payments to surgeons by nearly 9 percent. A recent survey of ACS members shows a majority of surgeons believe these cuts will result in longer wait times for patients and delays to care. As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have already caused Americans to delay needed care, these cuts will only further strain health care systems nationwide.
A bipartisan majority of the U.S. House of Representatives supports stopping the cuts. Representatives Ami Bera, MD (D-Calif.) and Larry Bucshon, MD (R-Ind.) recently led a bipartisan letter to Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), signed by 247 U.S. Representatives and supported by 135 national medical groups, urging them to stop these harmful cuts. In the coming weeks, the ACS, alongside the Surgical Care Coalition, will continue to advocate for Congress to protect patients and the care they need.
The ACS is a founding member of the Surgical Care Coalition, which advocates for access to quality surgical care for all Americans. The Surgical Care Coalition is comprised of 13 surgical professional associations that proudly represent the more than 150,000 surgeons working across the country with a common goal of improving the quality of care, and quality of life, for all patients.
