ACEP on the Hill
Energy & Commerce Marks Up Physician Payment Stability Legislation
This week, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a legislative markup of 44 bills, including the “Physician Fee Schedule Update and Improvements Act," legislation to stabilize the Medicare physician payment system by reforming "budget neutrality" policies and provide an additional 1.25% positive adjustment to the conversion factor. The legislation drew heavily from the ACEP-supported “Provider Reimbursement Stability Act of 2023" that the health subcommittee previously marked up. Key provisions of the updated bill include:
-updating the budget neutrality threshold from $20 million to $53 million, with an adjustment every five years based on the cumulative increase in the Medicare Economic Index (MEI);
-extending incentive payments for eligible Medicare alternative payment models for an additional year;
-providing an additional 1.25% positive adjustment to the conversion factor.
The additional conversion factor relief of 1.25% matches the Senate Finance Committee’s recent efforts to provide at least partial relief from the impending 3.4% Medicare cuts. ACEP, along with a large physician and non-physician provider coalition, continues to advocate strongly to stabilize the Medicare physician payment system, establish inflationary updates to the physician fee schedule, and to stop the full cuts set to go into effect on January 1, 2024. You can help by contacting Congress today!
Senate Finance Committee Examines Drug Shortages
On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Finance held a hearing entitled, “Drug Shortages: Examining Supply Challenges, Impacts, and Policy Solutions from a Federal Health Program Perspective.” The hearing focused on causes and impacts of drug shortages, particularly for essential medications, and discussed potential policy solutions to create a more stable and redundant supply chain for drugs.
ACEP submitted a statement for the record to continue to raise Congressional awareness of the impact of drug shortages on emergency medicine and patients in need of lifesaving emergency care. The statement highlighted ongoing challenges with shortages of essential emergency medications, how shortages affect the ability of emergency physicians to provide optimal patient care, and potential solutions that could help ensure greater redundancy and resiliency in the drug supply chain, especially for generic sterile injectables.
