November 8, 2021

Last week, CMS released the CY 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) Final Rule. APMA is currently reviewing the rule and will provide full analysis soon and comment as necessary.

While the rule puts forward a CY 2022 MPFS Conversion Factor (CF) of $33.5983 (a budget neutrality adjustment to the original CF of only 0.10 percent), the overall drop in the CF from CY 2021 is still over 3.7 percent due to the expiration of the Congressional 2021 payment increase of +3.75 percent. Other than the change in the CF, APMA notes that based on CMS estimates, podiatric physicians will see a +1 percent impact to their overall compensation. APMA urges DPMs to use APMA eAdvocacy to appeal to members of Congress to maintain the 3.75 percent increase to the CF through at least calendar years 2022 and 2023.

Additionally, the rule finalized several proposals of note:

• Added telehealth provisions that went into effect during the COVID-19 public health emergency will continue to be covered at least through December 31, 2023.
• Physician assistants may directly bill Medicare for services they provide as allowed by statute.
• The payment penalty phase of the Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) program will begin no earlier than January 1, 2023, and may be further delayed depending on when the COVID-19 public health emergency is ended.

If you have questions, contact APMA’s Health Policy and Practice department at healthpolicy.hpp@apma.org.

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