Several radiology organizations have signed on to the United Specialists for Patient Access (USPA) coalition's effort to oppose the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) clinical labor policy proposal.
In a letter to CMS Deputy Administrator and Director of the Center for Medicare Dr. Meena Seshamani, PhD, the coalition said that the policy's incorporation of new clinical labor data would result in "massive cuts" of more than 15% to 20% to critical services in the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS).
"The proposed rule includes troubling cuts of more than 20 percent to specialties under the PFS as a direct result of the so-called 'budget neutrality' policy, the same policy which drove drastic cuts in the 2021 PFS Final Rule," the coalition wrote. "Successive, cumulative cuts to specialists under the PFS are resulting in reimbursement ever more out of touch with actual resource needs as well as increased healthcare consolidation and healthcare costs, greater health inequities, and a healthcare system unable to meet the challenges of an ongoing pandemic."
The 24 organizations signing on to the letter included the following:
- The American College of Radiology
- The American College of Radiation Oncology
- The American Society for Radiation Oncology
- The Society of Interventional Radiology
