When the 2013 Medicare fee schedule became public last November, our members predicted the drastic reduction in reimbursement for EDX procedures would impact patients, physicians, and employees of physicians’ practices.
Five months after becoming effective, we need to know how these cuts have impacted patient care. As AANEM leadership prepares to present additional information to a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) review team, real-life illustrations of the cuts’ impact on your patients and your community are necessary.
“We understand how significantly your practice revenues have decreased because of these drastic cuts, and we’ve already collected and presented survey data to CMS. We now need to prove how access to patient care has been negatively affected,” explained Kathleen Micheletti, AANEM Government Relations director.
We are looking for examples of hospitals that have dropped EMG services, EDX practices in your area that have shut down, rural rotations by EDX physicians that have been discontinued, MDA clinics that have been cancelled, and similar situations. “We need to identify all areas where there is now decreased access to care for Medicare patients,” Micheletti explained.
Dr. Peter Grant, AANEM President, recently attended a meeting of the Alabama Neurological Society and said, “We heard in Alabama that the ALS clinic in Huntsville and the MDA clinics in Mobile and Montgomery had been cancelled. We also learned that neurology clinics in Tallassee, Wetumpka, Prattville, and East Montgomery have closed. This is the information we’re looking for—concrete, verifiable examples that will resonate with CMS. We must prove that these reimbursement cuts have had an unintended harmful effect on our Medicare patients.”
We want to hear from you!
Please email Kathleen Micheletti at
kmicheletti@aanem.org to report what impacts you have seen in your community that negatively affect Medicare patient access. If possible, ask for letters from your local organizations affected by these cuts to further substantiate our claims with CMS.
Thank you, in advance, for your assistance in this effort. We will continue to provide updates as the appeal process moves forward.