FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 10, 2024

Contact: 
Julie Hirschhorn
AAFP Public Relations
jhirschhorn@aafp.org   

Statement attributable to:
Steven P. Furr, MD, FAAFP
President
American Academy of Family Physicians
 

“The Medicare program is essential in helping millions of people access comprehensive, continuous primary care. While the proposed 2025 Medicare physician fee schedule includes some proposals to strengthen primary care, its 2.8% reduction in the Medicare conversion factor once again highlights the urgent need for congressional action to ensure that physician payments keep up with the costs of running a practice.

“Family physicians provide high-quality care to our patients and communities, but inadequate, falling Medicare payment rates create barriers to care for beneficiaries and strain physician practices. As a first step, Congress must enact an annual inflationary update to help physician payment rates keep pace with rising practice costs. Any payment reductions will threaten practices and exacerbate workforce shortages, preventing patients from accessing the primary care, behavioral health care, and other critical preventive services they need.

“While we remain firm in our efforts to reform Medicare payment more broadly by addressing the unintended consequences of factors such as budget neutrality and the lack of site-neutral payments, the AAFP is encouraged that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is working to appropriately recognize and value primary care within the limitations of the current Medicare physician fee schedule, including the continued implementation of codes, such as G2211, that more accurately reflect the resources needed for family physicians to serve as a comprehensive focal point of longitudinal care for patients. We’re grateful that CMS will allow payment for G2211 when billed alongside an evaluation and management (E/M) visit on the same day as an annual wellness visit, vaccine administration, or any Medicare part B preventive services.

“Additionally, family physicians need a payment system that enables them to invest in practice transformation and adopt alternative payment models — something that is out of reach for most primary care practices given the long history of undervalued payment for primary care. Without reform, the current Medicare payment system will further destabilize primary care physician practices, accelerate consolidation, and further erode the primary care physician workforce.

“Meaningful Medicare payment reform will help stem workforce shortages, combat consolidation, and meet the needs of a growing and aging population. The AAFP calls on Congress to end unsustainable physician payment cuts and work with CMS and the physician community to invest in community-based, physician-led primary care.”

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