The Radiology Business Management Association launched a coalition of doc groups on Monday hoping to fight $5 billion in pay cuts facing the profession.
RBMA’s board of directors approved the new Radiology Patient Action Network during the group’s annual conference in Las Vegas, which started Oct. 17. They’re working to quash reimbursement reductions in the 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, which advocates said could cripple practices and prevent patients from accessing imaging.
“Radiologists across the country are facing dire cuts to funding that will inevitably result in furloughs of staff and reductions in services for patients who need mammograms, cancer screenings and other lifesaving diagnostic services,” RBMA Executive Director Bob Still said in a statement. “[The new patient action network] will fight to ensure that patients get the care they deserve, and that Congress understands the need for federal funding to these services.”
Still and colleagues said they hope to build on the success of the association’s grassroots “Don’t Cut Docs” advocacy campaign to avert similar Medicare changes in 2021. RBMA estimated that radiology practices face a potentially “devastating” decrease of 11.75%. The action network is urging Congress to extend a temporary 3.75% Medicare pay bump into 2022 along with extending the sequestration mortarium to avoid losing $5 billion in payment reductions for vital services.
“Failure to extend this relief will create further consolidation of imaging providers and force severe reductions in vital healthcare staff that could disproportionately impact the most vulnerable of patients,” the group said in its announcement.
RBMA estimated that about 500 radiology business professionals are attending this year’s PaRADigm conference, which required vaccination against COVID-19. The show is slated to conclude Wednesday morning with a talk titled “Nine Months into Democratic Control in Washington and the Effects on Radiology.” Association lobbyist Shea McCarthy will discuss the forthcoming Medicare cuts, along with the recently released No Surprises Act interim final rule and other issues impacting imaging on the Hill.
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.