This Week in Washington DC – September 19, 2020

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

Medicare physician payments are scheduled to be cut when increases to evaluation and management (E/M) services are implemented next year. GI procedures are scheduled to be cut roughly 10%.

Call to Action – Congressional Sign-on Letter: Reps. Roger Marshall, MD (R-KS), Brad Wenstrup, MD (R-OH), Bobby Rush (D-IL), Terri Sewell (D-AL), David McKinley (R-WV), and Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ) are leading a letter to HHS Secretary Azar and CMS Administrator Verma, urging them to address and prevent these reimbursement cuts in the CY 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.

Thank you ACG members for your advocacy efforts! We have received confirmation from many U.S. House of Representatives’ offices over the past week regarding signing on. Let’s continue this momentum. Please urge your representatives to sign this letter!

These Medicare reimbursement cuts are looming when many GI practices are reopening from the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) concludes that over 40% of U.S. adults reported having delayed or avoided medical care during the pandemic because of concerns about COVID-19. Nearly 1/3 of adult respondents reported having delayed or avoided routine medical care.

Missing Your MACRA APM Incentive Payment? CMS recently notified stakeholders that the agency is unable to track down clinicians who are eligible to receive an Alternative Payment Model (APM) incentive payment under MACRA. CMS does not have the current billing information needed to disburse the payment. Under MACRA, an eligible clinician earns a 5% lump sum APM Incentive Payment (2 years after the QP Performance Period). CMS has compiled a list of these clinicians and identified them as having unverified billing information. If you believe you are one of these clinicians, follow these instructions before November 13, 2020, to provide CMS with updated billing information.

CDC Updates COVID-19 Testing Guidance for Asymptomatic Individuals: The CDC on Friday said that close contact with a person testing positive for COVID-19 warrants getting tested, regardless of whether you are experiencing symptoms — reversing recommendations made last month. CDC's testing guidelines now counsel people who have been within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes to get screened. "Due to the significance of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission, this guidance further reinforces the need to test asymptomatic persons, including close contacts of a person with documented SARS-CoV-2 infection," the guidance also says. Click here to read more.