It has been a very busy couple of weeks for the Advocacy Council. In cooperation with the AAAAI Committee on Advocacy, we continue to work on multiple fronts related to the recently released Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Proposed Rule revising the Physician Payment Schedule for 2019.
Last week, we sent a joint communication reporting on our Aug. 27 meeting with the Deputy Director of CMS and other CMS representatives related to concerns we have that affect allergists specifically; including venom immunotherapy costs and proposed changes to the reimbursement schedule for CPT 95165.
We’re also working closely with the American Medical Association (AMA) and have signed-on to a letter to Administrator Seema Verma regarding the proposed E&M changes. We greatly appreciate the AMA’s support of our specific concerns about the reduction of the supply cost for CPT 95165 mentioned in the Proposed Rule. We have participated in several calls with the AMA CPT/RUC Workgroup on E&M during the process of drafting the Proposed Rule comments submitted as a 162 page letter to Administrator Verma late last week.
We will be submitting our own comments, in conjunction with the AAAAI, to CMS before the September 10th deadline.
