In a federal budget deal struck to avoid a government shutdown, the House of Representatives has voted to reduce about half (1.68%) of the 2024 3.37% across-the-board physician pay cut that took effect in January. The Senate is expected to vote soon, and the President is expected to sign which will be effective March 9.
This essentially means Congress has again failed to stop in its entirety a pay cut that threatens Medicare patients’ access to high-quality physician care.
The cut continues to persist over 2% of sequester cuts totaling to 3.68%, on top of 4% from last year’s physician pay reduction. Unfortunately, as in contrast to prior years, this payment rate is not retroactive.
This was achieved due to enormous effort by all organizations, including ASIPP, with widespread support to block the 3.37% Medicare cuts for physician services on a permanent basis.
Our conversations with members of Congress show that they are looking at ways to create a permanent fix for these issues. We need to continue to place pressure on Congress for a permanent fix. The graph below shows 2024 Medicare payment updates prior to the 50% reduction of the cut as projected by AMA. The only change would be 1.68%, instead of 3.4%.
