Medicare is slashing what it pays physicians, an annual event that – till now – was almost always rejected by Congress.
That will reduce old folks’ access to care, cut workers’ comp fee schedules, and likely lead to more provider consolidation.
This from Becker’s:
In its 2024 Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule released Nov. 2, CMS reduced overall physician pay by 1.25% and updated the Medicare conversion factor to $32.74, a 3.4% decrease from last year.
Nope, a fix wasn’t in any of the “continuing resolutions” Congress passed last year and earlier in January (“CRs” are a stop-gap, emergency funding step more often seen in desperately poor banana republics than in the “greatest nation in the world.)
As a result, docs’ pay will be cut about 3 1/2%…and they are none too happy about it. (Read this for details on potential implications)
Okay that’s bad, right?
Not as bad as what’s coming.
Reminder – if Congress doesn’t pass a budget – in exactly one month – all Federal agencies – including Medicare, the VA, Defense, the FAA… face budget cuts. Weapons procurement, care for veterans, agriculture inspections, airplane safety inspections (this isn’t a problem, right??) are just a few.
Remember way back (as in two years ago) when Congress’ wait-till-the-last-minute-to-get-stuff-done made us all nuts…if we knew then how dysfunctional the House would be now we’d have been quite happy for what we did have.
Yep, Republicans in the House of Representatives’ refused to even vote on an immigration reform bill – THE hot issue in Washington and around the country – a bill that gave them everything they wanted.
House GOP – Yay, we finally got the soccer ball! Let’s play! Wait…how do you play? I dunno…you know? Nope – you? Nuh-uh…you? No clue…you? Uh…I thought it had pointy ends…Someone pick it up…NO way dude! Not me…
What does this mean for you?
To quote HL Mencken, you get the government you deserve, and you deserve to get it good and hard.
PS – Over the lastly 20 years I’ve written a lot about the incredibly screwed-up Medicare reimbursement process…
