The American College of Radiology (ACR) is asking the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to drop a proposed policy that would shift payments within the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) for 2021 toward evaluation and management (E/M) services.
"The proposed policy would greatly benefit some physicians, but penalize many who rarely bill for E/M services, including radiologists and radiation oncologists," the ACR said in a statement.
Because the proposal could have such negative impact on radiology, the college is calling on Congress to intervene, asking it to suspend budget neutrality requirements in the MPFS.
"E/M services account for about one-quarter of all Medicare dollars," said CEO Dr. William Thorwarth in the ACR statement. "The proposed CMS policy would reallocate tens of billions of those dollars, which goes beyond the appropriate scope of the power of the executive branch and rightly deserves to be debated in Congress."
