Day of Action: USPA Members Discuss Clinical Labor and EM Cuts With Congress

 

USPA members participated in over 100 meetings with members of Congress and their staff to stop the ongoing clinical labor and EM cuts to office-based specialists in the 2023 MPFS

 

WASHINGTON, DC — Yesterday, the United Specialists for Patient Access (USPA) organized a virtual lobby day to meet with over 100 members of Congress and staff to discuss the proposed cuts to clinical labor and EM in the 2023 Physician Fee Schedule (CMS-1770-P). 

 

USPA members shared with lawmakers and their staff the vital role office-based specialists play in our healthcare system and the patients who rely on their care. If the cuts proposed in the 2023 PFS are finalized as written, office-based specialists would have no choice but to close their doors or reduce services. This round of closures would further accelerate widespread health system consolidation, limit patient options, and, as a result, undermine the Biden administration’s efforts to address health equity issues.

 

Click here to read USPA’s comment letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). 

 

Dr. Mark Garcia, USPA board member and CMO for American Vascular Associates, said, “Right now, our priority is to do all we can to stop the proposed cuts to office-based specialists in the 2023 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. We need lawmakers to see that our nation’s specialists cannot endure another round of drastic cuts. It's not sustainable and the outlook is bleak if nothing is done. Office-based centers are already closing in record numbers. Further Medicare cuts will only accelerate this trend, limit patient access to care, and worsen health equity issues nationwide, and ironically lead to higher healthcare costs, negating the purpose of the proposed legislation.”

 

Dr. Garcia continued, “Congress and CMS must stop these cuts to office-based specialists!”

Click here to watch USPA’s explainer video on the ongoing clinical labor and EM cuts to office-based specialists