ACP supports proposed changes in Medicare payments to physicians
The new provisions were included in the proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for 2020 that was released by CMS on July 29.
ACP strongly supports recent proposed changes in Medicare payments to physicians that would recognize the value of cognitive services in providing quality patient care. These provisions were included in the proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) for 2020 that was released by CMS on July 29. Improvements include:
- increased payments for evaluation and management (E/M) services,
- retained separate payment levels for E/M codes,
- improved documentation for E/M services,
- improved accuracy in tracking time spent,
- payment for managing opioid use disorder, and
- additional add-on codes.
ACP has long been seeking these changes and was a leader, along with several other health care societies, in the push to improve payments for these historically undervalued services.
Additionally, changes proposed to the 2020 Quality Payment Program should reduce clinician burden. These include ongoing efforts to remove low-value measures; provisions related to vendor accountability; and the new Merit-based Incentive Payment System's (MIPS) Value Pathway, which has the potential to further streamline currently siloed MIPS performance categories, something ACP has called for in the past.
More information about the proposed changes is available online.