APTQI Commends Bipartisan Lawmakers for Urging House Leaders to Block Planned Cuts to Medicare Specialty Providers

On May 29, U.S. Representatives Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) and Susan W. Brooks (R-Ind.) sent a bipartisan letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) urging House leadership to protect patients and medical professionals by taking action to prevent pending Medicare reimbursement cuts for physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language pathologists.

The letter, signed by 46 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, asks Congressional leaders to include a waiver for the budget neutrality requirements included in the 2019 evaluation and management (E/M) code rule in any relevant legislation moving through the House in the months ahead.  Including such a waiver would remove scheduled 2021 cuts for therapists, while still allowing for the E/M code increases to take effect. Physical and occupational therapists, specifically, are slated for an eight percent cut under Medicare on January 1, 2021.

The lawmakers write, “If these cuts are allowed to go into effect, they will be devastating and will limit access to care for patients, including seniors, who rely on these services. Ultimately, these cuts will force physical and occupational clinics to close, resulting in thousands of qualified professional clinicians, especially those in rural and urban area in our districts, to lose their jobs.”

To read the bipartisan lawmaker letter to House leaders, click here.

To urge Congress to stop Medicare cuts to specialty services, click here.