Doctors Fight Medicare Cuts To Continue Saving Life and Limb

10/06/2023 47 min
Doctors Fight Medicare Cuts To Continue Saving Life and Limb

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Episode Synopsis

Every year, the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) is updated to determine the reimbursement rates for physicians. The powers that be decide which areas require more funding and which areas need to see a decrease in reimbursement to maintain budget neutrality. However, the latest reimbursement cuts have hit the "limb savers" hard, including vascular surgeons, interventional cardiologists, and interventional radiologists, who provide amputation prevention services for patients, with a circulation issue known asperipheral artery disease (PAD), in community-based clinics known as office-based labs (OBLS). P.A.D. is a circulation issue that left untreated can lead to amputation. To prevent further amputations and disruptions in patient access to care, new bipartisan legislation has been introduced to stop ongoing cuts to office-based specialists for the next two years. The Cardiovascular Coalition's Dr. Paul Gagne and Dr. Daniel Nathanson, both vascular surgeons, talk about why this new legislation is critical to save life and limb.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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