Congress Fails to Fix Medicare

On March 14, Congress approved a budget bill funding the federal government for the rest of the 2025 fiscal year. The legislation was signed by President Trump the next day. Missing from the budget package, however, was a fix for the rapidly shrinking Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (payment rates today are 33 percent lower in real terms than in 2001). ASCP and its grassroots network of dedicated pathologists and laboratory professionals have been lobbying Congress to address declining Medicare payments, both for the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) and the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS). In advance of Friday’s vote, ASCP joined 56 other organizations in a statement urging Congress to reverse this year’s cuts in the PFS as part of the budget deal. 

ASCP has been working with the American Medical Association and other concerned organizations to coordinate lobbying to fix the PFS. Last month, ASCP released an Action Alert supporting the Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act, which would reverse the 2.84 percent 2025 cut in the PFS and provide a 2 percent update. ASCP also sent a letter to Congressional leaders endorsing the measure with the hope that it would be included in the recent budget bill.  

With the budget bill signed into law without a Medicare fix, ASCP and its allies will continue pushing Congress to address declining Medicare payment rates, both for the PFS and the CLFS. ASCP is asking its members and their colleagues to use the ASCP Action Alert to prod Congress to enact Medicare payment reform this year. ASCP will be releasing a separate Action Alert focused on the CLFS soon.