Proposed CMS reimbursement rate cuts will likely affect patients and physicians in 2025
14% of physicians said they would be trying to limit their Medicaid patient counts moving forward.
Over the next year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) intends to roll out a 2.8% cut in pay for physicians, detailed in the 2025 Medicare physician payment schedule.
The proposed changes follow years of payment reductions and are putting both patients and medical professionals at risk. Data from the American Medical Association reveals that fewer doctors have accepted Medicare and Medicaid as reimbursement payments have lowered by 26% since 2001.
As reimbursement rates face drastic cuts, Medicaid patients are losing their doctors who are deciding to no longer accept Medicare and Medicaid. These programs, which typically serve low-income and senior Americans, may force patients to seek out lower-quality care or travel longer distances to find doctors who will accept Medicare or Medicaid, according to the article.
According to a 2023 survey from Medscape, a medical news website, 65% of physicians said they would continue to accept new Medicare and Medicaid patients and only 8% said they would no longer accept them.
However, a more recent survey disclosed that 14% of physicians said they would be trying to limit their Medicaid patient counts moving forward. The survey also found that 66% of physicians said that reimbursement rates were the biggest issue they faced when accepting Medicaid patients.
“This has been an unfortunate trend for a few years now and is only getting worse, ” Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek.
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“The reality for most doctors is that more and more of their operation’s revenue depends on getting reimbursed from insurance, Medicaid and Medicare, and the more difficult it is to get reimbursed, the more likely it is to see doctors drop acceptance. The sad part is this is hurting both doctors, their staff and their patients,” Beene said.
Over the coming year, it is likely that both patients and physicians will suffer the ramifications of the proposed payment cuts both physically and financially.