CONGRESSIONAL ACTION ON MEDICARE REIMBURSEMENT

Congress has agreed on a legislative package including six bills that would fund certain federal agencies for the remainder of 2024. Proposals include a number of healthcare-specific policies, such as the extension of the 1.0 GPCI floor, extension of the Advanced Alternative Payment Model (APM) incentive payment for 2024 at 1.88%, maintaining the 2023 QP threshold levels for 2024, and more.

The legislation also includes a proposed, prospective increase of 1.68% to Medicare physician reimbursement effective March 9, partially mitigating the 3.37% cut to the Medicare conversion factor that went into place on Jan. 1. Medical groups would still be left with a 1.69% reduction in reimbursement for the rest of the year.

MGMA released a statement on Congress’ failure to reverse the full cut earlier this week and remains committed to sustainable reform to the Medicare payment system that includes an inflationary update. The legislative package was passed by the House late yesterday afternoon and now heads to the Senate.

CHANGE HEALTHCARE CYBERSECURITY ATTACK UPDATE

MGMA is closely monitoring the Change Healthcare cyberattack situation. We continue to hear concerning feedback from members about the myriad ways their practices are being impacted. Given the size of Change Healthcare and the breadth of services it provides to physician groups and the larger healthcare sector, the consequences of this malicious cyberattack have been significant and far-reaching.

We sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last Wednesday outlining the consequences medical groups have felt and requesting they utilize all the tools at their disposal to mitigate these impacts so medical groups do not have to take drastic actions to remain in operation. HHS released a statement in response to feedback from MGMA and other affected physician and hospital organizations on the fallout from the Change Healthcare outage, outlining flexibilities to assist providers.

MGMA is continuing to advocate for accelerated payments for physician practices, as well as additional support, as the consequences of the cyberattack remain.