APMA Advocacy Helps Advance Congressional Hearing on Medicare Physician Payment

The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee is hosting a hearing on May 20 titled Examining the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, MACRA, and Opportunities for Payment Reforms. The hearing will focus on bipartisan opportunities to reform the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) and Merit-Based Incentives Payment System (MIPS).

This monumental hearing comes after APMA's consistent engagement with the House GOP Doctors Caucus, Democratic Doctors Caucus, and members of the committee about the financial challenges of unsustainable Medicare reimbursement and burdensome MIPS reporting requirements on independent podiatry practices. Earlier this year, APMA submitted a letter to the House GOP and Democratic Doctors Caucus on the needed reforms within the forthcoming Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) reauthorization.

APMA has long advocated for Medicare reforms that tie yearly payment fluctuations to the Medicare Economic Index (MEI) and establish a more physician-centered MIPS framework that reduces administrative burden and simplifies reporting requirements. Help advance Medicare payment reform by using APMA's eAdvocacy Center to urge your lawmakers to support HR 8163, the Provider Reimbursement Stability Act. This bipartisan legislation would reform requirements within the MPFS and strengthen long-term payment stability for podiatric physicians.