Advocacy in Action

On November 16th, along with more than 100 national and state medical associations, HRS co-signed a letter to Congressional House of Representatives and Senate leaders calling for legislative action to avert the impending 3.37% cut to the 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. We also need your help to stop the cut!

On December 1st, a new bipartisan legislation, the Physician Fee Schedule Update and Improvements Act, H.R. 6545, was introduced in the House to make improvements to the physician fee schedule under the Medicare program will be part of the House Energy and Commerce Committee markup this week.

On November 6th, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its Contract Year 2025 Policy and Technical Changes to the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Programs proposed rule, which would revise the Medicare Advantage (Part C), Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit (Part D), Medicare cost plan, and Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) regulations to implement changes related to Star Ratings, marketing and communications, agent/broker compensation, health equity, dual eligible special needs plans (DSNPs), utilization management, network adequacy, and other programmatic areas.

A new proposed rule recently released by CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), titled “21st Century Cures Act: Establishment of Disincentives for Health Care Providers That Have Committed Information Blocking,“ outlines actions to hold health care providers accountable for information blocking under the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act).

CMS recently released updates to the regulations that obligate hospitals to publicly disclose their charges, including negotiated rates with commercial insurance plans.

During the November Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) meeting, staff and commissioners held a session titled, Medicare Coverage of and Payment for Software as a Medical Service: An Overview.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee convened a hearing on November 8th to discuss policy considerations for artificial intelligence (AI) in health care.

On November 16th, President Joe Biden signed a bill to avert a government shutdown and keep the government open through early 2024.

On November 14th, the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care held a hearing titled "Ensuring Medicare Beneficiary Access: A Path to Telehealth Permanency." The hearing focused on making permanent the telehealth flexibilities available during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE).

New legislation, the No Fees for EFTs Act (H.R.6487), was recently introduced to prohibit health plans from imposing fees on physicians and hospitals for standard electronic funds transfer (EFT) payments.