The 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) final regulation included several wins for primary care. Most notably, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will implement a long overdue increase to clinical labor pricing, which is the portion of Medicare payments that account for the costs of employing clinical staff (i.e., wages and benefits). The data CMS uses for clinical labor pricing hasn’t been updated since 2002, negatively impacting primary care and other specialties that rely on clinical staff.

 

This update to clinical labor pricing, set to go into effect January 1, 2022, will help physician practices hire and retain nurses, medical assistants, and other essential clinical staff. However, other specialties are opposing the update and lobbying Congress to delay or halt it. Write to Congress today to tell them why the clinical labor pricing update is important for your practice and encourage them to support the update!