CMS Updates Conversion Factor for Remainder of Calendar Year 2024
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updated the 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) conversion factor for claims with dates of service from March 9th through December 31, 2024, following enactment of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (CAA, 2024).
While mitigating part of the physician payment cut that went into effect on January 1st, the resulting conversion factor after passage of the CAA, 2024 still reduces payments to physicians treating Medicare patients. This is the fourth year in a row that CMS and Congress have executed cuts for payments to physicians treating Medicare patients.
In CY 2023, the MPFS conversion factor was $33.8872. For CY 2024:
- For claims with dates-of-service of January 1, 2024 – March 8, 2024, the MPFS conversion factor is $32.7442.
- For claims with dates-of-service of March 9, 2024 – December 31, 2025, the MPFS conversion factor is $33.2875.
Even after Congressional intervention, the revised $33.2875 conversion factor, rounded to $33.29, still represents a 1.77% reduction to MPFS payments compared to 2023 payments. When considering the steeper cut enacted at the beginning of 2024, this results in CMS and Congress cutting payments to electrophysiologists treating Medicare patients by roughly 2%. While maintaining the full 3.37% cut for all of 2024 would have been unacceptable, HRS is disappointed that CMS and Congress failed to maintain payments for physicians treating Medicare patients at least at 2023 levels.
This unfortunate decision reinforces HRS' call to Congress urging long-term physician fee schedule payment reform, including updating Medicare physician payments based on inflation of practice costs and modernizing statutory provisions related to budget neutrality adjustments. More information on revision of the 2024 conversion factor is available on the CMS website.