Dermatologists continue fight for Medicare physician payment reform

Throughout 2024, the AADA lobbied Congress to avert all Medicare payment cuts, making this our sole federal legislative advocacy priority.

Unfortunately, Congress failed to stop the 2.8% Medicare physician payment cut by Dec. 31, 2024, and the cuts took effect on Jan 1. 2025. The Academy is deeply disappointed that Congress did not act, despite reaching a comprehensive agreement between both legislative houses earlier in 2024.

The AADA spent the year hounding Congress for reform. We strongly supported 41 members of the U.S. Senate and 233 members of the House of Representatives in demanding that congressional leadership act to stop the 2.8% cut to Medicare physician payment and prioritize passage of a desperately needed Medicare payment update reflective of inflationary pressures.

In September, dermatologists and patient advocates gathered in Washington, D.C., for the 2024 AADA Legislative Conference to urge Congress to reform Medicare physician payment. This was the largest Legislative Conference in the Academy’s history with over 190 advocates holding 217 meetings with their federal legislators.

As a direct result of AADA’s relentless advocacy on this issue, the Senate introduced the Physician Fee Stabilization Act in August aimed at addressing budget neutrality, a major cause of the ongoing physician payment cuts.

We also banded together with our physician and specialty groups. In July, the AADA and the American Medical Association joined 115 health care professional and state medical associations and demanded that Congress pass critical bills that would reform the current Medicare physician payment system.

On May 23, AADA President Seemal R. Desai, MD, FAAD, testified before the House Ways and Means Health subcommittee imploring Congress to pass a permanent Medicare physician payment update that acknowledges the inflationary growth of health care costs while working toward long-term reform.

While the Academy is extremely disappointed and frustrated that Congress did not act to reverse these cuts and reform the Medicare payment system, we will continue the fight for reform. The Academy is currently urging Congress to support H.R. 879, the Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act. This bipartisan legislation would stop the Medicare physician payment cut that went into effect on Jan. 1 and provide physicians with an additional 2% payment increase for 2025.

We hope you will too. Take action and tell Congress to stop the 2025 Medicare physician payment cuts and provide physicians with an overdue inflationary update to protect seniors’ access to care. It is important that Congress hears directly from physicians to make a real change.