Bipartisan Bill Aims to Alleviate Cuts to Practice Expense
Providing Relief and Stability for Medicare Patients Act of 2023 was introduced to the House representatives on May 25, 2023. The proposal, if enacted, would increase non-facility practice expense (PE) relative value units (RVUs) for procedures performed in office settings that require high-tech devices or equipment.
Three factors that comprise direct PE include clinical labor staff, medical supplies and equipment costs directly associated with a service or procedure. Due to budget neutrality, an increase in payment to one component typically means a decrease in payment to another. The proposed legislation would mitigate cuts resulting from recent clinical labor updates by providing an increase to non-facility PE RVUs for office-base procedures that utilize high-tech medical devices and equipment such as those services often performed by radiation oncologists and radiologists. The proposed legislation is supported by over 20 physician groups and specialty societies including the American College of Radiation Oncology (ACRO), American College of Radiology (ACR), American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), and Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) among many others.
