Improving Medicare

Background

The Medicare program is critical to ensuring that the elderly and others in the United States are able to access necessary health care. Nearly all physicians in the United States participate in the Medicare program, meaning its role as a payer is influential across the entire health care system. In recent years the program has undergone changes with a shift toward the use of value-based payments, the start of the Quality Payment Program, and an increase in testing different practice and payment models through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and other avenues.

ADVOCACY WIN

Medicare Changes for 2023

The Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for 2023 will increase payments for inpatient E/M codes and simplify documentation requirements by aligning them with outpatient codes. However, the fee schedule includes a scheduled payment cut that needs congressional action before the end of 2022.

Where We Stand

The American College of Physicians advocates to ensure that Medicare meets the needs of internal medicine physicians and their patients. We support the goal of aligning physician payments with the efficient delivery of high-quality care to patients. We support improvements that would do away with unnecessary administrative burdens that divert physicians away from patient care. For the transition to value-based payments to work, performance measures used for payment or public accountability must be evidence-based, clinically relevant, and appropriate; and internists must be given ample opportunity to participate in a range of diverse alternative payment models that can accommodate a wide range of specialties, practice sizes, and unique patient populations.

Latest Advocacy Efforts​

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To access everything ACP has said related to Medicare reform issues search all policy statements, copies of testimony, and letters to government and non-government officials.

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Medicare and the Quality Payment Program

Additional Advocacy Efforts