Partnering with SVS PAC in fight over payment cuts

Jan 03, 2021 Re-posted from the January 2021 issue of Vascular Specialist

By Beth Bales and Bryan Kay

As 2020 brought both the prospect of significant reimbursement challenges for surgical services as well as the tremendous clinical and financial challenges of the pandemic, the SVS Government Relations Committee focused intensely on efforts to head off implementation of steep cuts to 2021 Medicare reimbursements.

In 2021, chair Margaret Tracci, MD and the committee will continue to work closely with the SVS PAC and partners at the Surgical Care Coalition for appropriate reimbursement for vascular surgery care—a fight bound to continue even in the event of a “fix” in the final days of the 2020 legislative session, says Tracci. “We will also continue to advocate for policies that impact the quality of life and well-being of vascular surgeons, including pushing back against prior authorization and other administrative burdens, and to ensure that our role and mission are represented in any of the broader healthcare reform efforts that may emerge in a new administration,” she says.

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A few years ago, in his presidential address to the Midwestern Vascular Surgical Society, Mark Mattos, MD, spoke eloquently about the need to “protect our specialty.” A large part of this, he argued, is protecting our patients; no other specialty in medicine can provide the type of comprehensive vascular care that we offer. The daily reality we all face is the potential for declining Medicare reimbursement for our services.

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