Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Medicare Stability for Patients and Providers Act”.
Medicare Stability for Patients and Providers Act
A BILL
To prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Services from taking certain actions with respect to the clinical labor price, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Prohibiting implementation of certain labor price updates under the 2022 physician fee schedule; report
In general— Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall maintain clinical labor prices under the 2022 physician fee schedule and not take any action to implement, finalize, or enforce the clinical labor price updates of the final rule published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on November 19, 2021, entitled “Medicare Program; CY 2022 Payment Policies Under the Physician Fee Schedule and Other Changes to Part B Payment Policies; Medicare Shared Savings Program Requirements; Provider Enrollment Regulation Updates; Provider and Supplier Prepayment and Post-Payment Medical Review Requirements”.
Report— Not later than 12 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall submit to Congress a report on the physician fee schedule under the Medicare program under section 1848 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w–4), including—
an analysis of provider reimbursement under such physician fee schedule and whether or not such reimbursement has sufficiently taken into account medical inflation over the last 20 years;
an analysis of whether significant annual changes in provider reimbursement are a cause of site-of-service migration and disruptions in patient access and cost-sharing; and
based on paragraphs (1) and (2), recommendations for reforming such fee schedule to minimize significant annual changes in provider reimbursement and appropriately account for inflation updates.