On September 7, ASTRO submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on the 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) and Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (HOPPS) proposed rules.

For the MPFS, ASTRO’s comments stressed that major reforms to the MPFS are needed and highlighted in ASTRO’s ROCR proposal. 2024 is the third year of the four-year phase-in of the updates to clinical labor pricing, which disproportionately impacts specialties that utilize expensive equipment, such as radiation oncology. ASTRO is urging Congress to pass H.R. 3674 to mitigate the clinical labor cuts.

The comments also included responses to the Agency’s proposals related to telehealth services, virtual direct supervision, payment for dental services, as well as the requests for information on updates to practice expense data collection and reimbursement for drugs and biologicals not usually self-administered by the patient. Read more in ASTRO’s MPFS comment letter.

For HOPPS, ASTRO’s comments focused on the issues with the Agency’s comprehensive ambulatory payment classification methodology, especially as it relates to brachytherapy for cervical cancer. They also included a response to the request for comments on the OPPS packaging policy for diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals and a discussion of the ambulatory payment classification methodology and its impact on health equity. Read more in ASTRO’s HOPPS comment letter.

Go deeper by reading ASTRO’s summaries of the proposed rules.