08/18/2020

ASTRO Urges Congress to Block Physician Payment Cuts

ASTRO urges Congress to block physician payment cuts

August 18, 2020

On August 17, ASTRO sent a letter to Congressional leadership urging Congress take swift action to avoid newly proposed Medicare payment cuts that would exacerbate the challenging conditions facing America’s radiation oncology care physicians and their patients. The letter acts as a response to the recently released 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule, which would finalize changes related to Evaluation and Management (E/M) services.

In the letter, ASTRO voices support for the restructuring and revaluing of the office-based E/M codes but also conveys concerns that budget neutrality provisions will lead to disastrous physician payment cuts at the worst possible time. The budget neutrality provision results in significant direct cuts to radiation oncology of approximately 6 percent, with many core services suffering reductions of around 10 percent. With radiation therapy clinics already experiencing revenue declines of 20-30 percent or more due to COVID-19, these additional cuts will make financial recovery even more difficult for many radiation oncology practices.

To protect the radiation oncology community, ASTRO urges Congress to waive the budget neutrality requirements of the new proposed rule before the final E/M code is implemented on January 1, 2021.

Visit astro.org/advocate to send your own message telling your representatives to take action on this issue and waive budget neutrality requirements.