CLINICAL PRACTICE
House Bill Introduced to Prevent 2.8 Percent Medicare Physician Payment Cut in 2025
Legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives to prevent the looming 2.8 percent cut in Medicare physician payment that is scheduled to start Jan. 1, 2025. The bipartisan legislation was introduced by Reps. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.), and Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) and joined by several other influential members of the House of Representatives.
For the past five years, the Medicare program has cut payments to physicians and other part B providers. If enacted, the bill would eliminate the 2.8 percent cut in 2025 and provide a positive update that is equal to half the Medicare Economic Index. Congress is expected to consider this legislation when it returns to “lame duck” sessions after the November election.
The ATS strongly supports this legislation and urges Congress to enact it and prevent further cuts to Medicare physician reimbursement and provide the needed positive payment updates.
CLEAN AIR
ATS Supports E.P.A. Proposal to Continue HFC Budgets for MDI Use
The ATS submitted comments supporting the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed regulation to continue hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) allowance for use in metered dose inhalers (MDI) for years 2026-2030. Congress has directed the agency to implement a phase down of HFC use throughout the U.S. economy with a goal of 85 percent reduction on HFC used by 2036. HFCs are powerful greenhouse gases and are used in several industries, including cooling refrigeration, fire suppression, computer manufacturing, and in medical devices.
In the proposed rule, the E.P.A. notes that current MDIs use HFC propellants with high global warming potential, but that the MDI industry is working on propellants with significantly lower or no global warming impacts, however these new propellants are not expected to become widely available until after 2030.
WHO Global Tuberculosis Report
In the most recent World Health Organization’s latest Global Tuberculosis Report, released on Tuesday, the W.H.O. reported that approximately 8.2 million people were newly diagnosed with TB in 2023, the highest number since the organization began global TB monitoring in 1995. This increase places “…TB again as the leading infectious disease killer in 2023, surpassing COVID-19,” according to the W.H.O.
Globally, an estimated 10.8 million people fell ill with TB in 2022, up from 10.6 million in 2022. Geographically, TB disproportionately affected people in 30 high-burden countries, including India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines and Pakistan, accounting for 56 percenet of the global TB burden. The total number of TB-related deaths was 1.25 million in 2023, down from 1.32 million in 2022.
According to the organization, multidrug-resistant TB remains a public health crisis. While an estimated 400,000 people developed multidrug-resistant or rifampicin-resistant TB (MDR/RR-TB, only 44 percent were diagnosed and treated in 2023.
The ATS advocates for global and domestic funding for TB research, including new TB vaccines.
