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  4. Improving Medicare

Improving Medicare

    Background

    The Medicare program is critical to ensuring that the elderly and others in the United States are able to access necessary health care. Nearly all physicians in the United States participate in the Medicare program, meaning its role as a payer is influential across the entire health care system. In recent years the program has undergone changes with a shift toward the use of value-based payments, the start of the Quality Payment Program, and an increase in testing different practice and payment models through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and other avenues.

    ADVOCACY WIN

    Medicare Changes for 2022

    In 2021, Medicare implemented major improvements in payment for evaluation and management services and streamlined documentation for them as long advocated by ACP. The 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule continues these improvements. ACP also successfully advocated for legislation passed by this Congress to avert “budget neutrality” and other formula-driven cuts and is advocating for additional measures this year to avert more cuts and better recognize the value of services that internal medicine physicians provide to their patients. You can find more about how these changes may impact your practice in the Practice Resources section.

    Where We Stand

    The American College of Physicians advocates to ensure that Medicare meets the needs of internal medicine physicians and their patients. We support the goal of aligning physician payments with the efficient delivery of high-quality care to patients. We support improvements that would do away with unnecessary administrative burdens that divert physicians away from patient care. For the transition to value-based payments to work, performance measures used for payment or public accountability must be evidence-based, clinically relevant, and appropriate; and internists must be given ample opportunity to participate in a range of diverse alternative payment models that can accommodate a wide range of specialties, practice sizes, and unique patient populations.

    Latest Advocacy Efforts​

    Search the ACP Policy Library

    To access everything ACP has said related to Medicare reform issues search all policy statements, copies of testimony, and letters to government and non-government officials.

    Search the Policy Library

    Medicare and the Quality Payment Program

    Additional Advocacy Efforts