Lawmakers in the U.S. House introduced bipartisan legislation Thursday to address clinical labor wage updates expected to gash radiologist pay in 2022.
Reps. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., and Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., are cosponsoring the Medicare Stability for Patients and Providers Act. House Resolution 6048 would block the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services from upgrading pay for clinical labor staffers.
Advocates have said these changes would necessitate “massive” pay reductions for other providers, with interventional radiologists and radiation oncologists bearing the brunt. The services most impacted by this decision are used to treat diseases that disproportionately affect patients of color, industry watchers warned in August.
“Specialty providers are facing cut after cut after cut, year after year after year, while CMS is busy counting pennies,” Rush said in a statement. “Moving forward with these misguided cuts will be detrimental to the Biden administration’s stated goals of achieving health equity and will undoubtedly inflict disproportionate harm on minorities and other vulnerable patient groups.”
CMS first revealed the changes as part of its 2022 Medicare fee schedule released in July. The agency is aiming to update wages for clinical labor staffers such as mammography technologists. But these practice expense components are subject to budget neutrality, meaning increased Medicare spending in one place requires cuts elsewhere. As such, interventional radiology, radiation oncology and other specialties with high medical supply costs and lower spending on clinical labor positions could face significant reimbursement reductions next year as severe as 20%. Advocacy groups predicted IR practice closures in 2022, if the reductions move forward.
The legislation would block CMS from updating clinical labor wage in 2022. It would also require Health and Human Services to study the impact previous Medicare Physician Fee Schedule cuts have had on physicians and recommend long-term reforms.
CMS attempted to soften the impact from these changes in the final fee schedule released Nov. 2, phasing-in the wage updates over four years. The agency said this is it’s first time updating clinical labor rates in 20 years. It will result in payments to primary care specialists who use clinical labor—family practice, geriatrics, internal medicine, etc.—rising, driving “greater person-centered care for these services,” CMS said earlier this month.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.