Clinical Labor Policy Fact Sheet

Repeated Cuts For Specialists: Specialists under the PFS have seen cuts of up to 40% and moreover the last several years. Other providers have seen increases of a similar magnitude over the same period. Learn more here.
Health System Consolidation Increases: These CMS cuts are a key driver in the ongoing closures of office-based centers that the AMA has cited and that have been accelerated by the pandemic. See here and here.
Health Inequity Increases: Peer-reviewed data shows that the cuts to office-based specialists will have significant negative impacts on patients with cancer, ESRD, women in need of fibroid embolization, and other areas where there are significant health disparities. Learn more here.
Protecting Clinical Staff: Assertions that clinical staff won’t get pay raises in 2022 because clinical labor pricing hasn’t been updated since 2002 aren’t factual. Medicare’s accounting for clinical labor has nothing to do with what doctors actually pay staff. Of course, doctors have been providing pay increases to clinical staff since 2002.

The irony is that if the 2022 clinical labor update goes into effect, by far the biggest impact will be that specialty clinical staff will be fired as centers are forced to close due to the associated 20% cut to specialists.

These clinical labor cuts are the biggest cuts being faced by providers in 2022 and in the face of a new COVID variant. The cuts are bigger than the combined cuts of the 3.75% cut to the conversion factor and the 4% and 2% sequester cuts.

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About the United Specialists for Patient Access (USPA): The mission of USPA is to unify and strengthen the voice of office-based specialists, enabling professionals and patient advocates to work collaboratively with Congress and the Administration and achieve near-term relief and long-term payment stability in the Physician Fee Schedule. For more information, please click here: https://www.uspaccess.org