The American College of Radiology (ACR) said it strongly opposes draft recommendations released Thursday by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) on how to fix the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula.
The MedPAC recommendations include a proposal for creating two separate conversion factors that would result in a 5.9% reimbursement cut in each of the next three years for most physicians, including radiologists and radiation oncologists. Reimbursement for primary care services would be frozen at current levels, and all physician reimbursement would be frozen for seven years thereafter, according to ACR.
However, these recommendations are not based in sound evidence and would only serve to fragment the physician community at a time when it must unify for the benefit of patients, according to the organization.
Instead, MedPAC needs to engage in a forthright and evidence-based dialogue with the entire physician community to arrive at appropriate reimbursement policy that ensures patient access to appropriate, high-quality care, ACR said.
"This policy should not be based on payment cuts to certain segments of the physician population but rather should be rooted in quality initiatives within a coordinated patient care structure," ACR said in a statement. "The cuts proposed by MedPAC would embody the antithesis of the accountable care philosophy, and would severely impair the multispecialty coordination of care so vital for the continued health and longevity of our country's Medicare patients."
