On July 7th, CMS released the 2023 Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule, which includes costly cuts to Provider Medicare reimbursements.
The proposed rule contains a decrease of $1.53 to the calendar year (CY) 2022 National conversion factor of $34.61, resulting in a conversion factor of $33.08 for CY 2023. The CT conversion factor is usually slightly more than the national rate, but would still see a reduction based on the proposal. CMS states that the change reflects the expiration of the 3% increase in Physician Fee Schedule payments for CY 2022, this was extended in the final rule last year, as well as a 0% conversion factor update and a budget-neutrality adjustment. The 3% bump was put in place by Congress to help providers offset the expenses of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also scheduled to go into effect January 1, 2023 is the additional 4% in cuts under the Congress’ Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) law, which applies cuts to counterbalance an increase in federal spending.
Comments on the proposed rule are due September 6.