Please take 2 minutes to ask Congress to support H.R. 2474, which would protect the safety net for older Americans by ensuring Medicare provider payments keep pace with inflation. This bill has important implications for the future of the mental and physical health care workforces, which in turn affects access to services.

Currently, Medicare provider payments are estimated to be 26% lower today than they were in 2001 when adjusted for inflation. We need Congress to address this reality. If providers are not adequately compensated for their work, many risk being unable to continue taking Medicare patients. This could make it harder for older patients to receive needed services when they need them.

H.R. 2474 fixes this by changing the way Medicare payment rates are updated through the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS). The PFS is managed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and affects all health providers equally. Currently, the PFS is updated each year using a single, global update factor, which does not factor for inflation. Under current law there is a freeze on increases in the annual update factor for PFS payments until 2026, and future annual updates will be limited to no more than 0.25%. H.R. 2474 proposes instead to tie the annual update to provider payment rates to the Medicare Economic Index (MEI), a measure reflecting changes in both provider expenses and broader economic trends. 

Your action matters – strengthening Medicare payments will strengthen and preserve key services for older Americans.

Stay tuned – we will be doing more to protect and strengthen Medicare in coming weeks, and our request will have important implications for all services, including those outside of Medicare. In the next few weeks, APA Services will be asking psychologists to submit comments to CMS on aspects of the proposed 2024 physician fee schedule specific to Medicare coverage and payment for behavioral health services.  In the meantime, we need your help in asking Congress to address the global PFS update issue affecting all Medicare providers.

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