Hospital outpatient departments are in line for a Medicare rate increase next year, while program payments for physicians could decline.

Overall Medicare payments to physicians and clinicians in 2024 would fall by an average of 1.25% next year under a proposed rule released Thursday by the Biden administration.

The need to transform the deeply flawed Medicare physician payment system into one that will not only sustain but strengthen physician practices could not be more critical.

AMGA and the AMA said the proposed cuts would hinder the ability of multispecialty medical groups to provide high-quality care to their patients.

Physician groups renewed their calls for an overhaul of Medicare's approach to clinician payment after Medicare on Thursday formally announced an expected drop in the base rate used in the physician fee schedule for next year.

Although the Medicare Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) is well-intentioned, its reporting requirements are burdensome to physician practices and often appear to be clinically irrelevant and more focused on checking boxes rather than improving care.

The AMA has been on the road fighting for Medicare physician payment reform for well over a decade, and the system remains on an unsustainable path.

At the Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association (AMA), the nation’s physicians called for a multipronged campaign to overhaul the outdated Medicare payment system, saying that patient access and survival of practices are at risk.

Physicians have seen their inflation-adjusted payments drop 26% since 2001 to 2023, and those payments are further eroded by frequent and large payment redistributions statutorily required by budget-neutrality adjustments contained in the annual Medicare physician payment schedule.