REACH OUT TO CONGRESS NOW!– Prevent Medicare payment cuts and extend telehealth flexibilities

PA-ACP is urging PA internal medicine physicians to contact their members of Congress and ask for support of legislation preventing year-end Medicare payment cuts to physicians and maintain expiring telehealth flexibilities.

With a limited number of legislative days left in the 118th Congress, your help is needed in urging Congress to act on these important issues:

Passing the Telehealth Modernization Act of 2024 (H.R. 7623) would extend telehealth flexibilities established during COVID-19 public health emergency for two2 years through December 2026. A permanent extension of telehealth flexibilities is preferred, but recognizing the need to extend it this year, we are asking Congress to pass the Telehealth Modernization Act of 2024 this year.

The bill would remove geographic restrictions, expand originating sites required for telehealth visits, and audio-only telehealth access. It would also allow FQHCs and Rural Health Clinics to continue providing telehealth services, and would reform PBM practices by improving transparency, accountability, and competition in PBM practices.

Passing the Physician Fee Schedule Update and Improvements Act (H.R. 6545) and the Physician Fee Stabilization Act (S. 4935), which require the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to raise the budget neutrality threshold to $53 million from $20 million and use cumulative increases in the Medicare Economic Index (MEI) to update the threshold every five years. The $20 million threshold was established in 1992 and has not been updated since. Raising the budget-neutrality threshold would allow greater flexibility in determining pricing adjustments for services without triggering across-the-board cuts in Medicare physician pay due to budget neutrality.

Action Requested: Please contact your members of Congress and urge them to act on these important priorities before the end of the year. You can find their names and contact information at Congress.gov. A sample letter/email follows:

Pass Important Health Care Legislation This Year!

As a constituent and a physician, I am writing because Congress must act this year to pass important legislation that would improve access to care for my patients.

Specifically, I urge you to:

Cosponsor and pass H.R. 7623, the Telehealth Modernization Act of 2024, which would extend important telehealth flexibilities that are set to expire at the end of the 2024 through December 2026, including removing arbitrary geographic restrictions on where a patient must be located in order to utilize telehealth services, enabling patients to continue to receive telehealth services in their homes, and ensure that health centers and rural health clinics can provide telehealth services.

Since the COVID 19 pandemic, my use of telehealth has increased significantly. It has enabled me to provide care to my patients when and where they need it. Studies have shown the benefits of using telehealth as a method of health care delivery such as enhancing patient–physician collaborations, improving health outcomes, increasing access to care, and reducing medical costs when used as a component of a patient's long-term care.

Cosponsor and pass H.R. 6545, the Physician Fee Schedule Update and Improvement Act and S. 4935, the Physician Fee Stabilizing Act . This bipartisan legislation would raise the threshold to implement budget-neutral payment cuts in Medicare to $53 million and use cumulative increases in the Medicare Economic Index (MEI) to update the threshold every five years.

This legislation would help fix flaws in the Medicare physician payment system. Currently, it fails to provide consistent, stable, and positive financial updates for physicians to meet their practice expenses. In fact, when adjusted for inflation, over the last twenty years, physician payments have decreased by thirty percent from 2001-2024. Congress must act to protect access to care for seniors by stabilizing physician payment in Medicare. Although Congress has provided some relief to physicians to mitigate the impact of past cuts, physicians should not be faced with reductions in payment each year due to this flawed system.

As a physician on the frontlines of patient care, I need to be able to provide high-quality, affordable, and timely access to care to my patients and am supported by a Medicare payment system that adequately covers my practice expenses.

I am counting on your support for these initiatives and stand ready to serve as a resource on any clinical matters where my expertise could be of benefit.

Thank you in advance for your support!