Significant Pay Cuts Averted for 2022

Published December 29, 2021

Advocacy

In response to a large, concerted effort on the part of many physician groups, including AANEM, Congress took action at the very end of 2021 to avoid an impending nearly 10% cut to Medicare payments that would have gone into effect January 1, 2022.

On December 21, 2021 Congress passed the Protecting Medicare and American Farmers from Sequester Cuts Act which avoided a 4% statutory cut from the PAYGO (Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010) provisions, extended the moratorium on the 2% Medicare payment sequester, and mitigated the significant 3.75% reduction in the Medicare conversion factor. This reduced conversion factor in conjunction with the payment sequester and PAYGO provisions would have had a substantial negative impact on many physicians, including most AANEM members.

AANEM undertook exhaustive efforts through letters and direct outreach to numerous legislative offices, along with the AMA and nearly every physician membership organization across the nation, imploring them to avert the proposed, drastic cuts to physician practices, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). With the passage of the Protecting Medicare and American Farmers from Sequester Cuts Act, the conversion factor for Calendar Year (CY) 2022 is $34.6062. This is a slight decrease of $0.2869 from 2021, but a $1.0079 increase from the amount initially finalized in the 2022 Physician Fee Schedule.

A comprehensive comparison of the current RVU’s with the finalized 2022 values for the codes relevant to EDX and NM medicine can be found on our website here. Please email the policy department at policy@aanem.org with any questions.