By Kelly Byrnes, FSVU, RVT, BS
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) organized a leadership fly-in on Capitol Hill the day before their Vascular Annual Meeting. On June 13th, I had the pleasure of joining SVS as the SVU’s Advocacy Chair and representative on the SVS Government Relations Committee. Forty-eight participants representing 22 states joined in more than 90 meetings with members of Congress to discuss payment and workforce issues of concern to our members.
Two of the bills we discussed were related to payment reform:
- H.R. 2474, the Strengthening Medicare for Patients and Providers Act
The Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) is the only fee schedule without an automatic mechanism to account for inflation. The Strengthening Medicare for Patients and Providers Act (H.R. 2474) provides an annual inflation update equal to the Medicare Economic Index (MEI) for Medicare physician payments.
Why it matters: This will help physicians invest in their practices ensuring adequate personnel and equipment.
- H.R. 3674, the Providing Relief and Stability for Medicare Patients Act of 2023
This bill provides targeted relief for community-based practices by providing an increase to the non-facility practice expense relative value units for those procedures performed in an office-based setting that utilize expensive medical devices or equipment.
Why it matters: Medicare beneficiaries need access to high quality, office-based specialty care.
Another highlight of the day was listening to former Member of Congress, Dr. Phil Roe (R-TN) who addressed the group during our lunch break and answered questions from participants.
