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Labs – Including Those Run by Physicians – Face New Reporting Requirement in 2023 - 03/14/2023

Starting Jan. 1, medical laboratories – including physician-owned labs – face a reporting requirement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that will create a paperwork burden and could negatively affect payment rates.

Advanced APM Incentive Payments Extended Through 2023 Performance Year - 03/02/2023

Physicians who participate in an advanced alternative payment model this year will remain eligible for incentive payments – albeit smaller ones – that were initially slated to expire in 2022.

Medicare Expands Coverage for Colorectal Cancer Screening - 02/24/2023

Medicare patients soon will benefit from expanded coverage of colorectal cancer screening tests, following advocacy by the Texas Medical Association and others in organized medicine.

Gap in Telehealth Flexibilities Could Harm Access to Care - 02/22/2023

Although Congress recently extended many telehealth flexibilities through 2024, the decision is so far not reflected in Medicare’s 2023 physician fee schedule, leaving a potential gap of confusion and access to care for Texas physicians and patients.

Medicare Advisory Panel Recommends Physician Pay Raise - 02/01/2023

A key congressional advisory panel lent its support to a Medicare physician pay increase for the first time in several years, underscoring the need for comprehensive Medicare physician payment reform.

Medicare Fee Schedule a Mixed Bag for 2023 - 01/26/2023

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently posted the 2023 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, which takes effect Jan. 1 and brings with it a mixed bag of consequences for physicians.

Medicine Achieves Reduction in Medicare Physician Pay Cut Amid Push for Reform - 01/13/2023

After a concerted advocacy campaign by the Texas Medical Association and others in organized medicine, Congress lessened a Medicare physician pay cut that took effect Jan. 1. Despite this intervention, physicians still face declining Medicare payments in 2023 and in 2024, underscoring the need for comprehensive reform. Meanwhile, TMA experts continue to analyze other potentially positive provisions of the extensive spending law that averted the cuts and its specific implications for Texas.

Watch for MIPS Data Validation and Audit Request - 12/14/2022

Physicians who participate in Medicare’s Merit-Based Incentive Payment System soon may receive a data-sharing request, or audit, as part of a legitimate federal oversight process, and compliance is required to avoid penalties.

Fight Impending Medicare Cuts With This TMA Toolkit - 11/18/2022

Physician Medicare pay is about to fall without congressional help, so the Texas Medical Association created several ways for doctors to speak out via its Medicare Pay Cuts Toolkit.

Medicare Pay Cuts on the Horizon: Tell Congress to Act - 11/08/2022

Unless Congress acts by the end of the year, physicians face another big cut to their Medicare payments on Jan. 1.

CPRIT Awards $49 Million to Texas Cancer Researchers - 10/05/2022

The $49 million recently granted by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas shows how the agency makes Texas a leader in cancer research, says Temple internal medicine specialist Mammen Sam, MD, chair of the Texas Medical Association’s Committee on Cancer.

TMA Fights Another Proposed Medicare Pay Cut, While Pressing for Reform - 09/26/2022

TMA recently responded to the Medicare's 984-page proposal with concerns about a 4.4% pay cut and other potentially harmful changes related to scope expansion, e-prescribing penalties, and physicians’ administrative burden.

Inflation Reduction Act Expands Health Coverage, Ignores Medicare Payment Fix - 08/30/2022

The Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law on Aug. 16, has made headlines for its deficit- and climate change-related provisions. But the omnibus legislation also will expand health care coverage and lower Medicare prescription drug costs.

MIPSperceptions: Study Confirms Doctors’ View of Medicare Program as Burdensome - 08/22/2022

Physicians’ perceptions of Medicare’s Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) have run along these and other unflattering lines since MIPS first launched in 2017. But a Physicians Foundation-funded study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine sought to better quantify how physician practice leaders perceive MIPS, one of the two participation tracks in Medicare’s Quality Payment Program. (The Texas Medical Association has representation on the Physicians Foundation’s board of directors.)

Medicare ACOs Face Key Changes in Proposed Fee Schedule - 08/10/2022

In an effort to boost participation in accountable care organizations, Medicare has significant changes to its shared savings program on tap in the proposed 2023 physician fee schedule.

Talk to Patients About: Human Papillomavirus Vaccine - 07/29/2022

The vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the most effective life-saving measures in medicine, and yet it has long suffered from poor public perception.

Biden Administration to Launch Specialty Payment Model - 07/27/2022

A new, voluntary Medicare payment model option focused on cancer care opens the value-based care door wider for specialists at a time when such models have been limited.

Medicare Delays Penalties for Appropriate Use Program - 07/18/2022

After long-standing warnings from the Texas Medical Association and others in medicine about Medicare’s appropriate use criteria (AUC) program, Medicare is delaying the next phase of the program, in which physicians face monetary penalties.

Proposed Medicare Fee Schedule Includes Physician Pay Cut, Expanded Access to Care - 07/15/2022

The recently proposed 2023 Medicare physician fee schedule would deepen physician pay cuts while expanding access to telemedicine, behavioral health care, and cancer screening. If implemented, it also would significantly modify the Medicare Shared Savings Program.

TMA Calls on Lawmakers to Stop the Latest Medicare Pay Cut - 06/28/2022

Just days remain for Congress to stop yet another pending Medicare physician pay cut, and the Texas Medical Association is again feverishly working the nation’s Capitol.

Feds Declare “Long COVID” a Disability - 06/10/2022

Although the pandemic rages on, there may be some relief in sight for people with lingering effects from COVID 19 infection – or “long COVID” – as well as consequences for the physicians who treat and employ them. The Biden administration in late

TMA Fighting to Stop Yet Another Medicare Pay Cut – and Looking for System Overhaul - 06/08/2022

After decades of Medicare physician pay cuts – the latest of which is set to take effect on July 1 – the Texas Medical Association and others in organized medicine have set their sights on comprehensive reform.

Delay Upcoming Medicare Cut, TMA Tells Congress - 04/08/2022

With just days remaining until the latest Medicare physician pay cut takes effect, the Texas Medical Association has been lobbying for an eleventh-hour act of Congress to stop it.

Medicare Lowers Thresholds to Cover Lung Cancer Screening - 04/05/2022

Medicare has announced expanded coverage for lung cancer screening using low-dose computed tomography, the only recommended screening test for the disease.

MIPS Participation Drops per Preliminary Report - 04/05/2022

Fewer clinicians participated in Medicare’s Quality Payment Program in 2020, and fewer participants earned incentive payments compared with 2019, according to preliminary data recently released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.