The American College of Radiology (ACR) and a broad coalition of physician organizations applauded the introduction of bipartisan legislation in Congress that aims to bring greater stability to Medicare physician payments.
The bill, called the Provider Reimbursement Stability Act, would reduce steep year-to-year payment swings driven by budget neutrality requirements and more accurately account for practice expense changes in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, the ACR said in a statement. It was introduced in the Senate by Sens. John Boozman (R-AZ), Peter Welch (D-VT), Roger Marshall, MD (R-KS), Angus King (I-ME), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), with companion legislation in the U.S. House.
Key provisions include the following:
Increasing the budget neutrality threshold
Requiring regular reviews of practice expense inputs
Giving the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) tools to correct inaccurate or outdated billing codes
Limiting annual conversion factor changes to plus or minus 2.5%
