Medicare Physician Payments: Where Did All the Money Go?

ICD10monitor June 27, 2022
Terry Fletcher, BS, CPC, CCC, CEMC, CCS, CCS-P, CMC, CMSCS, CMCS, ACS-CA, SCP-CA, QMGC, QMCRC

The federal government probably won’t be raising Medicare reimbursements next year, and physician organizations are strongly objecting.

At its Jan. 13 meeting, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), which advises Congress on financial issues pertaining to Medicare, recommended against increasing base payment rates to doctors in 2023. It justified its decision in part by noting that Congress temporarily raised Physician Fee Schedule Payment rates for the period 2020-2022, and that doctors have benefitted from “tens of billions of dollars in pandemic relief funds and more flexibility to provide telehealth.”

Also, according to Daniel Zabinski, a MedPac staff member, “Despite the public health emergency (PHE), the number of ASCs (ambulatory surgical centers) increased by 2 percent in 2020, and the growth...

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