CMS Releases 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the calendar year (CY) 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) proposed rule on July 13. The agency proposes a CY 2024 conversion factor of $32.75, which is a decrease of approximately 3.4% from the CY 2023 conversion factor, and the impact charts from CMS indicate that many surgical specialties are facing a 2% to 3% cut. While any payment decrease is troubling, there was concern that this cut could have been larger. The ACS advocacy efforts with CMS had an impact. 

Most of the proposed cut is due to the establishment of a separate payment for add-on code G2211 to account for visit complexity associated with certain office/outpatient E/Ms. The G2211 code predominately aids primary care and was originally proposed 3 years ago. Due to aggressive engagement from the ACS and other surgical specialties, Congress delayed the implementation of the code. The same coalition will once again be urging Congress to stop or delay the G2211 code from being implemented, which would eliminate the majority of the anticipated 2024 cut. 

Budget neutrality in Medicare physician payment is one of the many aspects of a broken system. The ACS is continuing the work to both stop the cuts and stabilize the payment system in the short term and reform the system in the long term-work that includes supporting several pieces of legislation. 

The ACS is analyzing the 1,900-page rule in its entirety and will be offering extensive comments to CMS on issues critical to surgeons and surgical patients.

Reach out to your members of Congress through the ACS SurgeonsVoice and urge them to support efforts to stop the cut!