CVC Submits Comments to CMS on Imposed Cuts in 2025 PFS Proposed Rule

September 25, 2024—The CardioVascular Coalition (CVC) submitted official comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on the proposed rule for the CY 2025 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS).

According to the CVC, its letter to CMS emphasizes that the proposed rule would impose yet another round of significant cuts to private practice office-based interventionalists, and how the rule would make the problem of limb salvage provider deserts worse. Furthermore, the comments highlight the fact that if the proposed rule is finalized, Medicare reimbursement for 300 office-based services would be less than direct practice costs.

The CVC letter is available online here.

As quoted in the CVC press release, the letter states, in part, “Cuts to office-based interventionalists have become so severe that, in 2024, there are 195 procedures across service lines that are paid at rates less than the direct costs associated with those procedures—as calculated by CMS itself. In the 2025 PFS Proposed Rule released in July, this number would grow to 300, a 50% increase. In other words, for 300 services, CMS will not pay clinicians in private practice enough to cover the direct expenses of those services before even considering other costs like physician work and indirect costs.”