“The bill would cap annual Medicare physician reimbursement cuts at 2.5%—providing a predictable ceiling that allows practices to budget and plan rather than brace for the unknown each fall. It also gives the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) greater flexibility to consider medical inflation in limited circumstances when setting fees and requires more frequent, accurate updates to the relative value units (RVUs) that form the backbone of payment calculations. These RVUs would be reviewed at least every five years against real-world practice costs, correcting a long-standing flaw in the system.
Equally important, the legislation reforms Medicare’s outdated “budget neutrality” rule. Currently, any spending increase above a $20 million threshold—set more than three decades ago in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 and never adjusted for inflation—must be clawed back elsewhere, often through across-the-board cuts. The bill raises that threshold to $54.3 million and indexes it to medical inflation every five years, giving CMS breathing room to make targeted improvements without punishing all physicians.”
New Bipartisan Bill And Physician Pay Cuts: What Patients Need To Know – Yahoo News Australia