October 24, 2024
By Casey Korba, Director of Policy
We have a few updates as we await the release of 2023 Shared Savings results and the release of the final Physician Fee Schedule early next month.
Congressional Update
Recently, Congress passed and President Biden signed a continuing resolution funding the federal government through December 20. Congress is in recess until after the upcoming elections, and will reconvene in November. As in previous years, we are expecting Congress to address the 2.8% cut to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and extend telehealth flexibilities another two years.
Health care has not been a major area of focus for either the Harris or Trump campaigns compared to years past, but we look forward to engaging the transition team of the next Administration. Just as we have done with every Democratic and Republican administration since Aledade started a decade ago, we will work with them to champion and advance our priorities in value-based and accountable care.
Aledade Hill Day Highlights
The Policy team met with several U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill last month to advocate on behalf of our physician-led Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). Accompanying our Policy team were four of our member physicians and two leaders with federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). We also were joined by the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations (NAACOS), and others in the ACO community, to advocate for primary care and accountable care with legislators. We held meetings with both Democrats and Republicans, and lawmakers in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.
Our priorities include advocating for Congress to extend the financial incentives to join Alternative Payment Models (APMs), which the Value in Health Care Act (S.3503/H.R. 5013) would accomplish. We also asked the lawmakers to work with CMS to extend the Web Interface quality reporting and exempt clinicians in APMs from the Merit Based Incentive Program (MIPs) reporting that promotes the interoperability category. As we enter 2025, there is appetite to make long-term reforms to both physician payments and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA).
State Policy Corner
We are happy to introduce our newest Senior Analyst, Gaston Lassalle, to the team. A resident of Los Angeles, Gaston will be leading state policy efforts in our Western region and comes from a background in government affairs at a large community health center. Feel free to welcome him and/or share your questions or comments directly at glassalle@aledade.com.
Additionally, we will be hosting our bi-annual National Policy Collaborative webinar this fall. This year’s fall session, Advocacy 201: Implementing Action for Influence, will focus on engagement opportunities leading up to next year legislative sessions and how necessary the clinician’s and administrator’s voice is in this journey. Please plan to join us and we will share more details soon.