ACEP Submits Formal Comments to CMS on Proposed 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule

ACEP urged the emergency medicine community to contact members of Congress over the past few months to let them know a fifth consecutive year of reductions in Medicare physician payments is unacceptable. ACEP has submitted comments to CMS on behalf of emergency physicians. The Proposed 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule is expected to be released on or around November 1, 2024—with an effective date of January 1, 2025. Medicare physician reimbursements have failed to keep up with inflation for decades.

ACEP’s advocacy to date has helped ensure that CMS included in this year’s proposed rule a positive budget neutrality conversion factor update, but even with that, physicians will still face a 2.8 percent cut. More must be done so that Medicare reimbursement reflects the fair value of physician services.

The CMS proposal also suggests changes to the CMS Quality Payment Program, including the ACEP-developed Emergency Medicine Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) Value Pathway, or the Emergency Medicine MVP. ACEP created and supported the implementation of this model as a strong option to encourage uniform reporting of emergency medical services, which helps MIPS performance scores.