Advocacy & Practice Updates — Advocacy & Practice
Ask Your Representative: Co-Sponsor Legislation Creating Annual Inflation-Based Updates
The Medicare physician fee schedule is the only Medicare payment system without an annual inflationary update. As a result, physician payments have lagged other providers’ pay over the last two decades by about 26%. Recent increases in inflation have only exacerbated the situation.
ASRS is supporting bipartisan legislation that would implement mandatory annual inflationary adjustments to physician payment, based on the medical economic index (MEI). The bill, H.R. 2474 is sponsored by bipartisan physician members of Congress: Representatives Larry Bucshon, MD (R-IN), Raul Ruiz, MD (D-CA), Marionette Miller-Meeks, MD (R-IA) and Ami Bera, MD (D-CA).
Please join with your colleagues across medicine to help grow support of this important legislation. Use ASRS’ grassroots advocacy system to send an instant, pre-written email to your U.S. representative and ask him or her to co-sponsor this legislation.
If you need assistance, please contact Allison Madson, vice president of health policy, at allison.madson@asrs.org.
(Published 4.19.23.)