2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule - Physicians Urged to Act

On November 2, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its annual 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) that announces finalized policy changes for Medicare payments under the PFS effective on or after January 1, 2024. One of the biggest areas of concern is the 3.37% reduction in the Medicare conversion factor. The reduced conversion factor impacts AANEM members. This table shows the reduction in reimbursement from Medicare for commonly billed EDX codes: 

It's worth noting that even though the RVUs for the most commonly billed EDX codes generally increased slightly, the overall reimbursement declined due to the conversion factor.

While the reduction is due to statutorily-mandated budget neutrality rules, AANEM has urged CMS to work with Congress and the medical community to provide a positive update to the Medicare conversion factor in 2024 and in all future years to counteract the negative impacts of inflation on physicians, medical practices, and patient access to care.  As of Thursday, December 7, Representatives Murphy (R-NC), Davis (D-IL), Wenstrup (R-OH), Panetta (D-CA), Bucshon (R-IN), and Burgess (R-TX) introduced the “Preserving Seniors’ Access to Physicians Act of 2023”, which would completely eliminate the 3.37% Medicare cut for physicians that will go into effect on January 1.  While we do not expect any legislation preventing the Medicare cuts to pass Congress before the end of the year, the Preserving Seniors’ Access to Physicians Act is our best opportunity to advance legislation to eliminate the cuts in their entirety.

The American Medical Association (AMA) has also been fighting for Medicare physician payment reform for well over a decade. While the AMA has been able to work with Congress on legislation that delayed and phased in cuts that originated from a 2021 policy change in payment redistribution, physicians continue to face cuts from still more payment redistributions.

The AMA urges physicians to take action now by contacting lawmakers and advocating they cancel the 2024 cut and fix the unsustainable Medicare physician payment system. More information can be found on the AMA Fix Medicare Now website.

Questions and comments are always welcomed by the AANEM policy department: policy@aanem.org