ASCP Advocacy Secure Boost in Pay for Pathologist Services

On March 8, the U.S. Senate cleared the way for President Biden to sign legislation to reverse most of the cut in the 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule. For 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) cut physician payment rates by 3.37 percent. President Biden signed the measure the following day.

The legislation would provide a 1.63-percent boost in physician payment rates, which when coupled with legislation signed into law in late 2023, means that Congress has reversed 2.93 percent of the cut in the PFS for 2024. 

Since CMS outlined its proposed cut in the 2024 Medicare PFS, ASCP has been working in tandem with the American Medical Association. ASCP has released several action alerts via ePolicy urging its entire membership to contact their elected representatives in Congress. ASCP has also worked with AMA and other medical specialty societies to urge congressional leadership to reverse these PFS cuts.

Given the challenges Congress has faced on the spending issues during this Congress, the approval of this legislation is a significant victory. Still, more needs to be done to provide stability to Medicare physician payment rates. ASCP will be working closely with the AMA on these efforts.

To read more articles from this issue of ePolicy, click here. To learn more about ePolicy News and access past newsletters and articles, click here.