On Tuesday, ACEP wrote a letter to Congressional leadership outlining our requests to support emergency physicians in the COVID-19 stimulus package. In this stimulus package, Congress is expected to include stimulus provisions to help industries and businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In our letter, we specifically asked for the bill to include:
- Funds to be made available for emergency physician groups that face financial hardship from COVID-19, such as due to having to backfill coverage for EM physicians in their group who have been quarantined due to exposure to COVID-19
- Add-on payment for Medicare outpatient services using the ED site-of-service code with a primary or secondary diagnosis and/or treatment of COVID-19, to help support groups and ensure they have the resources needed to continue to be able to provide services during the expected surge ahead
- Suspend Medicare sequestration until at least the end of 2020.
- Waive for at least five years the upcoming 2021 Medicare E/M code cuts, which are expected to be 7 percent for emergency medicine
- Waive the budget-neutrality requirement around MIPS for the 2019 and 2020 performance years. That way, clinicians who have invested in changes and patient care and who still report to MIPS despite the recent announcement of a deadline extension can still be rewarded.
