Advocacy in Action

On July 10th, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published proposed rules for the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS), and the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) services for calendar year (CY) 2025.

Members of Congress have recently reintroduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation aimed at simplifying prior authorization (PA) within the Medicare Advantage (MA) program.

A national survey of physician practices led by the American Medical Association (AMA) is underway to gather accurate data on practice costs and the hours of patient care that physicians provide to support fair and accurate physician payment.

On June 13, 2024, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health convened a hearing titled Checking-In on CMMI: Assessing the Transition to Value-Based Care. Dr. Elizabeth Fowler, Ph.D., J.D., Deputy Administrator and Director, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Innovation Center) was the sole witness.

On June 12, 2024, as a member of the Smart Heart Sports Coalition, HRS sent a letter to the Senate HELP committee in support of the Access to AEDs Act (S. 1024), and a letter to the House in support of the HEARTS Act (H.R. 6829).

On June 24, 2024, HRS teamed up with the Graduate Medical Education Advocacy Coalition (GMEAC) to submit comments regarding a policy outline released by Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and members of the panel's Bipartisan Medicare GME Working Group.

On June 27, 2024, the House Committee on Ways & Means favorably reported legislation designed to create a more efficient pathway to Medicare coverage and payment for devices that receive a “breakthrough device” designation from the Food and Drug Administration.

In late June, CMS, along with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), finalized regulations that establish disincentives for certain health care providers that have committed information blocking.

CMS recently added Quality Payment Program (QPP) information for performance year 2022 to its publicly available clinician and group profile pages on the Medicare.gov compare tool and in the Provider Data Catalog (PDC).

On June 28, 2024, CMS announced the opening of its 2023 MIPS Final Score Preview period, during which clinicians will have the opportunity to preview their 2023 MIPS final score prior to the release of payment adjustment information.