APTQI Applauds Congress for Passing Legislation to Mitigate 2022 Medicare PFS Cuts

Advocacy efforts of therapy community help to secure three percent payment adjustment and extended sequester relief for six month

Washington, D.C. –– The Alliance for Physical Therapy Quality and Innovation (APTQI) today applauded lawmakers in Congress for passing the Protecting Medicare and American Farmers from Sequester Cuts Act (S. 610) to avert cuts to physical, occupational, and speech therapy in the CY 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS), including a partial extension of the Medicare conversion factor payment increase in 2022 and sequester relief for another six months.

Specifically, the bill provides a one-year increase in the Medicare PFS of three percent to support specialty providers through 2022. The bill also includes another three-month delay of the two percent Medicare sequestration reductions and a three-month, one percent reduction in Medicare sequestration.

APTQI and others stakeholders across the healthcare continuum – including the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), the Private Practice Section of the APTA, the American Medical Association (AMA), and hundreds of other groups – worked collectively to advance a legislative intervention to mitigate Medicare cuts in 2022. 

“This was truly a group effort, and we want to thank all of the associations we worked with in order to get this done. We are especially proud of the strong advocacy efforts of our sector, including the thousands of therapy practices and therapists who took part, to ensure Congress took action to ease Medicare cuts in 2022,” said Nikesh Patel, PT, Executive Director of APTQI. “This outcome demonstrates how effective our collective voices can be in securing policy change for the good of our patients and our industry.”

In total, APTQI advocates sent more than 37,000 letters to lawmakers in Congress urging legislative action to avert additional payment reductions in the year ahead.

“While we commend this legislation and the efforts of lawmakers to protect specialty care providers and Medicare patients in the coming year, we know that the relief is temporary and we will continue to work with regulators and Congress next year to find long term solutions for the fee schedule,” added Patel. “Our patients and members deserve a stable healthcare system.”

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