This Week in Washington DC – August 29, 2020

From ACG Legislative and Public Policy Council Chair, Whitfield L. Knapple, MD, FACG

In an effort to keep ACG members up-to-date on important updates in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, please find below the latest information tailored for GI practices.

Tax Implications of Provider Relief Fund Payments

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced this week that it has re-extended the application deadline for “Phase 2 General Distribution” funding to September 13, 2020 (changed from August 28, 2020). Click here to learn more about these eligibility and attestation requirements when applying for this funding.

Income Tax Implications: ACG has been actively working with a coalition of societies on reversing an U.S. Department of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) decision that makes payments made under the Provider Relief Fund subject to income taxation. Good news. There is now legislation in both the U.S. House and Senate that would exempt Provider Relief Funds from gross income and allows related expenses to be deductible.

Why is this important to your practice? Tax-exempt income earned by a partnership is also exempt from tax at the partner level (it may increase a partner’s basis). There also may be some confusion regarding the tax code’s mandate on “retained earnings” with respect to pass-through entities. ACG encourages GI practices to discuss these tax implications with your accountants and tax professionals.

ACG President Mark B. Pochapin, MD, FACG in July urged Congressional action to clarify and correct the tax consequences stemming from payments made under the PRF and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). These programs were intended to support ACG members and small businesses through the worst public health crisis in generations. If Congress does not act, taxpaying health care providers could lose up to 21% of their CARES Act funds.

Medicare Payment Cuts and E/M Services

Medicare physician payments are scheduled to be cut across many specialties in CY 2021 when changes to evaluation and management (E/M) services are implemented. As the GI societies alerted you, many GI procedures are scheduled to be cut 10% due to these proposed changes and CY 2021 conversion factor. CMS must forgo budget-neutrality rules when implementing changes to E/M services.

Latest update: ACG and the GI societies are working with a coalition of organizations to stop these cuts. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) championed a letter to House leadership asking for a 2 year budget neutrality waiver. The final letter had 92 co-signatories. Thank you ACG members for your advocacy efforts! In July, ACG and the GI societies also joined over 100 specialty societies on a letter asking Secretary of HHS Alex Azar that the agency use its authority under the public health emergency (PHE) declaration to waive budget neutrality for the changes. ACG will continue to advocate on your behalf on this critical issue. Please stay tuned for further membership action alerts on this important issue.

Telemedicine Hack Course – There is still time to participate

ACG members are encouraged to check out the HHS Telemedicine Hack series. ACG is a sponsor of this series, which includes presentations from ACG Practice Management Committee member Eric Shah, MD, MBA. There is no cost for this course and CME credits are available. Among the topics: workflows, documentation, best practices, and reimbursement. These sessions are also recorded to view at a later time. Register here.

ACG working with Congress on extending telehealth waivers: ACG is working with various members of the Congressional Telehealth Caucus and has endorsed a bill that extends many telehealth waivers currently in place.