The GAP and CAP Urge Pathologists to Contact Their Federal Legislators

posted: March 19, 2021

Medicare Cuts Looming Without Action

Issue: Without action, pathologists in Georgia and throughout the country will face a 2% cut to their Medicare payments

Recommendation: Contact your House representative and both Senators Ossoff and Warnock and urge them to support House Resolution 1868, which will prevent the cuts until December 21st, 2021 and prevent additional cuts from taking place next year.

Background in Plain Language

The cut we are facing is, technically, a sequester moratorium which is scheduled to expire on March 31st, 2021. So, what in the world is a sequester cut? Budget sequestration is an effect of the Budget Control Act (the irony abounds) of 2011. The Act states that if Congress exceeds pre-defined spending caps, then automatic across the board spending cuts take place involving all aspects of the federal budget (including Medicare). It turns out that Congress really isn’t too fond of caps, so we were all scheduled for a 2% cut in 2020. And then, well, then 2020 actually happened. Recognizing the crisis we all faced, Congress agreed on a moratorium to the automatically scheduled cuts, pushing the new date for the cuts to April 1st, 2021 (no joke). We currently approach that moment in time, and we do not think it is right to allow these cuts to take place in the current environment or ever.

But there is more. Congress has just passed a large spending bill that will contribute to the government exceeding the spending cap for 2021. So, that’s right, we’re probably in line for an estimated 4% cut in 2022. That’s not right, either. Fortunately, H.R. 1868 will help address both scheduled cuts (although, additional legislation will be required to fix the problem permanently).

For those GAP members and/or followers who are members of CAP, please check your email inboxes for a message from CAP that allows you to (very) easily contact your representatives.