WASHINGTON, DC — Today, the Dialysis Vascular Access Coalition (DVAC) praised the bipartisan letter sent to congressional leadership asking to provide relief for office-based specialists in the upcoming omnibus appropriations legislation. View the letter here. 

The letter, signed by 63 members of the House of Representatives, asks for the clinical labor cuts to be reversed in the 2022 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) and calls for fundamental reforms to the PFS to avoid wild and unpredictable reimbursement swings. 

Office-based providers have warned that failing to prevent these cuts will cause increased health care system consolidation, a widening of the health equity gap, force vascular access centers to close, and leave patients with fewer options.

DVAC is calling for swift action to stop the 20% Medicare reimbursement cuts for vascular access services. 

The letter to congressional leadership says, in part, “These “clinical labor” cuts are the most significant negative impact of the 2022 Physician Fee Schedule by far and are expected to cut reimbursement by more than 20 percent for some specialties. Frankly, these cuts threaten to undermine efforts to address health inequity, accelerate health system consolidation, and weaken our ability to deal with the pandemic.”

It continued, “We firmly believe that another round of 20 percent cuts as planned by the 2022 Physician Fee Schedule will cause many of the remaining office-based centers to simply close their centers and complete the migration to large health systems. As a result, Medicare spending and patient copays will increase, and the Medicare Part A Trust Fund will move closer towards insolvency.”