On August 4, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule for the 2021 calendar year. The proposal significantly impacts hip and knee surgeons and their health care professional teams by devaluing the procedures they perform which help return patients suffering from joint disease to productive, pain-free lives.
AAHKS is disappointed that CMS chose to accept the recommendations of the American Medical Association’s Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) to reduce the relative value units (RVU) that CMS will use to measure the value of total joint arthroplasty. The RUC recommendations reduce the RVU by a little more than one unit. This will hit surgeons and their practices especially hard at a time when many are struggling to recover after being shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read the full statement in the AAHKS press release and also the summary by AAHKS advocacy partner, Epstein Becker & Green (pp. 1-5).
