MGMA statement on stopgap funding bill (December 21, 2024)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 21, 2024

Media Contact:
Emily Dowsett
Director, Policy Communications
edowsett@mgma.com
 

MGMA statement on Congress' stopgap funding bill

Anders Gilberg
Senior Vice President, Government Affairs
Medical Group Management Association

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"While MGMA is relieved that telehealth flexibilities and the 1.0 work GPCI floor were extended — albeit temporarily — the final Continuing Resolution (CR) represents a huge congressional failure to the detriment of the nation's Medicare patients and their physicians. The previously agreed-upon CR, while not perfect, would have critically averted most of the 2.83% cut to physician reimbursement in Medicare beginning January 1. Now physician practices head into the new year facing uncertainty and financial shortfalls that not only negatively impact the viability of their Medicare business, but their commercial contracts tied to Medicare rates, as well as Medicaid reimbursement in states that use Medicare as a benchmark. Lawmakers are playing a dangerous game that will ultimately hurt patient access to physicians who can no longer deal with the chaos caused by congressional inaction to fix a reimbursement system that continues to destabilize the Medicare program.

Heading into the 119th Congress, while retroactively addressing the 2.83% cut to the conversion factor is of utmost importance, permanent reform to the Medicare payment system is needed to sustainably support medical groups and their ability to provide timely access to Medicare patients.”

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About MGMA

Founded in 1926, the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) is the nation's largest association focused on the business of medical practice management. MGMA consists of 15,000 group medical practices ranging from small private medical practices to large national health systems representing more than 350,000 physicians. MGMA helps nearly 60,000 medical practice leaders and the healthcare community solve the business challenges of running practices so that they can focus on providing outstanding patient care. Specifically, MGMA helps its members innovate and improve profitability and financial sustainability, and it provides the gold standard on industry benchmarks such as physician compensation. The association also advocates extensively on its members' behalf on national regulatory and policy issues.