CMS cuts physician pay by 7% over 2 years

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2021:
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a revised Medicare Physician Conversion Factor (CF) of $34.8931. The CF represents a 3.3% reduction from the 2020 CF of $36.0869. The 2021 Anesthesia CF is $21.5600, this is in comparison to the 2020 Anesthesia CF of $22.2016.

2022:

CMS finalizes cut to conversion factor​

CMS finalized a CY 2022 Physician Conversion Factor of $33.59, down $1.30, or 3.71%, from the 2021 Physician Conversion Factor. The conversion factor reflects a budget neutrality adjustment that accounts for changes in relative value units (RVUs) that are converted into PFS payments rates, as required by federal law.

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Smh 21 dollar unit value. Unbelievable. Can’t believe that we’ve been unable, as a profession and as a society (ie asa), to make progress on this.
 
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2021:
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a revised Medicare Physician Conversion Factor (CF) of $34.8931. The CF represents a 3.3% reduction from the 2020 CF of $36.0869. The 2021 Anesthesia CF is $21.5600, this is in comparison to the 2020 Anesthesia CF of $22.2016.

2022:

CMS finalizes cut to conversion factor​

CMS finalized a CY 2022 Physician Conversion Factor of $33.59, down $1.30, or 3.71%, from the 2021 Physician Conversion Factor. The conversion factor reflects a budget neutrality adjustment that accounts for changes in relative value units (RVUs) that are converted into PFS payments rates, as required by federal law.

Nothing like a slap in the face to thank healthcare workers for all the struggles and sacrifices during COVID
 
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More hours, less pay, increased cost of living, and sicker patient population.

at what point can we tell them to shove it and refuse Medicare Medicaid
 
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Meanwhile Medicare part B increased premiums 14.5% for next year. Where is the money going?
 
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Meanwhile Medicare part B increased premiums 14.5% for next year. Where is the money going?

It's amazing how Medicare is not allowed to negotiate with drug manufacturers so they happily pay an exorbitant fee for medications that don't do anything but for the physicians that actually hold up the system, they keep instituting cuts. It's not like reimbursement has been decreasing as inflation continues to rise.
 
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Upon further reflection I think you’re right. It has to all be going to big pharma and device manufacturers.
CMS has straight up said as much: US announces big hike in Medicare premiums

"CMS said part of the increase for 2022 was because of uncertainty over how much the agency will end up paying to treat beneficiaries to be treated with Aduhelm, an Alzheimer's drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in June over the objections of its advisers. Some experts estimate it will cost $56,000 a year. Medicare is deciding whether to pay for it now on a case-by-case basis."
 
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CMS has straight up said as much: US announces big hike in Medicare premiums

"CMS said part of the increase for 2022 was because of uncertainty over how much the agency will end up paying to treat beneficiaries to be treated with Aduhelm, an Alzheimer's drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in June over the objections of its advisers. Some experts estimate it will cost $56,000 a year. Medicare is deciding whether to pay for it now on a case-by-case basis."

I bet if CMS offered $5K a year instead of $56K a year they would take it if the alternative was not paying for it at all.
 
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I bet if CMS offered $5K a year instead of $56K a year they would take it if the alternative was not paying for it at all.

I don't understand why they are paying tens of thousands for a drug that has no benefit in a patient population that has no benefit
 
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anesthesiology resident here, this is absolutely sickening given all of our Covid sacrifices, rising inflation etc. my question is who approves this pay cut , is this voted on by house and senate ? And as a fellow resident physician what can I do prevent my generation from getting more screwed by the govt ?
 
Based on inflation alone the Medicare conversion factor should be $25 at a minimum. The $25 represents just basic inflation not the actual increases in healthcare reimbursement over 2 decades by private insurance carries.

Medicare pays a lot less and these days that discrepancy is only getting bigger vs private insurance.
 
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anesthesiology resident here, this is absolutely sickening given all of our Covid sacrifices, rising inflation etc. my question is who approves this pay cut , is this voted on by house and senate ? And as a fellow resident physician what can I do prevent my generation from getting more screwed by the govt ?
CMS is an enormous bloated federal bureaucracy filled with mid level administrators and high-heel and white coat wearing nurses who contribute nothing to actual clinical care. They have secure government jobs and will act to protect the solvency of those jobs at all costs. Kind of like the VA. CMS makes its own decisions, which are then rubber stamped by the appropriate house/senate committees who I'm guessing don't really look at anything other than the bottom line.
 
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In 2002 the national medicare anesthesia conversion factor was $16.60. In 2022 that number is $22.20.

I apologize for the incorrect 2022 medicare number. The actual number is $21 due to the cuts. The real number is supposed to be $25 based on just inflation over the past 2 decades. Medicare hasn't even kept pace with the rigged inflation numbers which by the way were very low the past 2 decades.

That is roughly 25% less than CMS should be paying us based on an already ridiculously low number.
 
Yet salaries for both MDs and CRNAs continue to go up. A hospital employee's salary is heavily subsidized. Same with independent groups for the most part. Those subsidies come with heavy strings attached. This is probably by design. All the money and power is given to the hospital instead of the physicians.

Hospital gets like $50/min to run an OR. Thats the reason they can afford do pay us $4/min despite only getting $2/min from medicare for our services.
 
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I don't understand why they are paying tens of thousands for a drug that has no benefit in a patient population that has no benefit
This is America in a nutshell. We have no acceptance of any form of end stage disease at a population level that we spend the country in to oblivion trying to stop the inevitable. Chemo and icu care are the same way. No end in sight.
 
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Meanwhile Medicare part B increased premiums 14.5% for next year. Where is the money going?


Here?


 
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Here?


Hahaha. Makes anti mask comments speaking out of his ass while his system was worked to the bone then gets 15 million dollar reward and can retire early. We live in opposite world.
 
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This is America in a nutshell. We have no acceptance of any form of end stage disease at a population level that we spend the country in to oblivion trying to stop the inevitable. Chemo and icu care are the same way. No end in sight.

if you take away non-indicated things (surgeries, stresses, echos, cath, chemo, procedures, etc), then we probably could cut 50% of our work out. We saw this during early COVID. If you only did the cases that needed to be done, production goes down significantly.

Like it or not, the borderline stuff is what greases our wheels.
 
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