Ask Your Legislators to Act to Prevent the 9% cut
Advocacy Opportunity:
Use this template to ask your Representatives to act to protect physical therapy from a 9% cut in Medicare reimbursement. Your legislators need to hear directly from you—their Key Contact—multiple times about the stark economic landscape you are experiencing and the impact a 9% cut would have on your business.
If you are on social media, follow up your request with a Tweet or Facebook post tagging your legislator and using #PPSAdvocacy. Template Tweet: “Please stop the 9% cut so I can stay in business—providing cost effective physical therapy and maintaining a vibrant small business in our community [@Rep/Senator twitter handle] #PPSAdvocacy”
New to engaging with your lawmaker or need a refresher? Check out these tips for advocacy.For information on PPS’s legislative priorities and activities, visit the Advocacy section at www.ppsapta.org
Thank you. Together we can make a difference in what is included in the upcoming COVID-19 package!
TEMPLATE:
Subject line: My patients need physical therapy. Please stop the 9% cut so I can stay in business.
Dear Representative/Senator,
My name is and I am a physical therapist and member of the Private Practice Section of the American Physical Therapy Assocaition. The outpatient physical therapy clinic that I work in is a vital small bsuiness and an important part of the local economy. Our community-based physical therapy clinic has been providing patients with access to safe, cost-effective care througout the public health emergency. However, our clinic is navigating economic challenges as a result.
CMS, despite strong and unequivocal pushback by stakeholders, providers, patients, and Members of Congress since August 2019, released the 2021 MPFS proposed rule which included plans to move forward with the E&M code payment boost ranging between 1% and 17%, paired with a cut of 9% for physical therapy. 34 more specialists are projected to receive cuts ranging from -1% to -11%.
Representatives Marshall and Wenstrup are leading a bipartisan sign-on letter which asks HHS Secretary Azar and CMS Administrator Verma, where possible, to engage with stakeholders in establishing fair and equitable payment solutions that address Medicare payment cuts at this time, while at the same time moving forward with policies to increase payments to primary care and other office-based specialties. The letter also acknowledges that legislative action is required to fully address this issue, but requests CMS to take immediate actions to delay or mitigate these cuts while allowing the scheduled increases to go into effect.
Congress must intervene to prevent this drastic cut. Please do these two things:
- Include at least a 2-year waiver of the budget neutrality requirement that is forcing CMS to cut the reimbursement of some providers in order to pay for an increase in Evaluation and Management (E&M) Codes.
- Join Congressional sign-on letter to CMS during public comment period. The sponsors of the letter believe it’s important that Congress submits their position to the Administration. The letter will be open through Wednesday, September 23rd. A link to the letter is here. To sign the letter, offices can complete the google form here.
If CMS proceeds to cut physical therapy reimbursement by 9% as planned, many community-based outpatient physical therapy clinics, who are barely hanging on through the joint impact of the public health emergency and economic crisis, will go out of business. We need your help so that our physical therapy clinic can keep its doors open—to not only serve our patients but also to provide jobs in our town.
Thank you,
[Name, credentials]
Member, Private Practice Section of the American Physical Therapy Association
[Practice Name]
[Practice Address]
[Practice phone number]