Proposed Bill Reduces Medicare Fee Cuts

Congress struck a mostly bi-partisan $1.66 trillion budget deal for 2023 that partially addresses the looming Medicare fee schedule cuts. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 was introduced on Monday night and should pass both the House and the Senate by Friday. President Biden is expected to sign it into law before the Friday funding deadline.

Here are the omnibus inclusions that impact the chiropractic profession:

Advertisement

• A 2% fee reduction in 2023 instead of the 4.5% fee schedule cuts that were previously scheduled as a part of budget neutrality.
• An additional 1.5% reduction in Medicare fees scheduled for 2024 as a continuing part of budget neutrality.
• A two-year postponement of the 4% in Medicare fee cuts from the pay-as-you-go sequester (PAYGO) triggered by the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act.
• An extension of the 2% sequestration for the next ten years.

As a result, the currently published fee schedule for 2023 will change, and the ICS is recommending the following:

Participating Providers

If you are a participating provider for Medicare, we encourage you to continue to bill Medicare at your standard fees. Your bills will be processed based on the appropriate fee schedule once released.

Non-Participating Providers

If you are NOT a participating provider for Medicare, we recommend that you wait to submit your bills until the correct schedule is released. However, based on our information, you may be able to process your claims using the currently published 2023 rates and inform your patients that additional amounts may be owed or require refunding.

The ICS would also like to thank all our Illinois doctors, staff, and patients who reached out to Congresspersons over the last two years to push for support on HR2654 (Medicare Modernization). Unfortunately, our recent efforts to add the chiropractic Medicare coverage language to this omnibus bill fell short. The Illinois Chiropractic Society will be working with the American Chiropractic Association and other national organizations in the coming year to re-introduce language requiring Medicare to cover services performed by chiropractic physicians. We look forward to working with all of you to have 100% cosponsor participation from Illinois Congresspersons and Senators.

Lastly, the Illinois Chiropractic Society will continue to work with other key organizations to advocate for the chiropractic profession and fight Congress’ continued reduction of Medicare fee schedules.