- Home
- Advocacy
- Latest News and Practice Data
- Senate Committee Releases White Paper to Address Medicare Physician Payment Reform
On May 17, the Senate Committee on Finance released a white paper focused-on reforming Medicare’s payment system for physicians with goals of strengthening patient care. The CAP has proactively advocated for long-term solutions to Medicare’s payment system for physician services, including during the most recent Pathologists Leadership Summit.
In April, the Finance Committee held a hearing titled “Bolstering Chronic Care through Medicare Physician Payment” to discuss how to approach updating the Medicare physician payment system, and how to ensure the treatment and management of chronic conditions is at the center of the Medicare program. The CAP submitted a statement for the record to the committee in response to the hearing. In the statement, the CAP recommended policy solutions that senators can act on to help stabilize the physician payment system and grow the workforce.
The white paper outlined several areas that the committee sees as an opportunity for reform, including:
- Creating sustainable payment updates to ensure clinicians can own and operate their practices.
- Incentivizing alternative payment models that reward providing better care at a lower cost.
- Rethinking how Medicare measures quality care.
- Improving primary care.
- Supporting chronic care benefits in Medicare fee-for-service.
- Ensuring continued access to telehealth.