Society Joins Other Physician Organizations in Addressing Executive Order on Medicare

Last week the Society, along with the American Medical Association and many other national and state medical societies, sent a letter to Alex Azar, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) concerning language in a recent executive order entitled, “Protecting and Improving Medicare for our Nation’s Seniors.” The letter noted the groups’ concern with language related to the supervision and reimbursement of nonphysician professionals.

“We are highly concerned this language requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to propose a regulation to eliminate or weaken current Medicare supervision requirements of nonphysician professionals, a critical safeguard to ensure the health and safety of Medicare patients and the cornerstone of the widely adopted team-based approach to health care. Scope of practice of health care professionals should be based on standardized, adequate training and demonstrated competence in patient care, not politics. While all health care professionals share an important role in providing care to patients, their skillset is not interchangeable with that of a fully trained physician,” the letter stated.

The groups noted that physician-led health care teams provide a strong foundation for such things as improving quality of care and reducing costs. There is also some concern that any regulatory changes could affect the reimbursement of both physician and non-physicians.

Click here to read the entire letter.