While Congress passed legislation in December of 2021 to provide one-year of relief from most of the 3.75% cut to the conversion factor 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.
This has major implications for radiation therapy centers and the patients they treat.
These “clinical labor” cuts are the most significant negative impact of the 2022 Physician Fee Schedule by far and threaten to undermine efforts to address health inequity, accelerate health system consolidation, and weaken our ability to deal with the pandemic.
ACRO is asking providers to tell their members of Congress to stop these cuts in the February omnibus appropriations legislation.
If not addressed, these painful cuts will force the closure of specialists providing services to cancer patients, dialysis patients, limb salvage patients, women seeking fibroid embolization and many others. Each of these conditions disproportionately impact minority patients and the closure of these office-based specialty centers will exacerbate health equity, accelerate health system consolidation, reduce Medicare beneficiary access, increase Medicare program costs and beneficiary copays, and hasten the insolvency of the Medicare Part A Trust Fund.
Watch this video explaining the cuts in more detail.
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