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From pay cuts to workforce evolutions, 2024 was a tumultuous year for physicians.
Here are five pieces of good and bad news each for physicians:
The bad news
CMS cuts pay again
Amid rising industry concern about physician reimbursement declines, CMS finalized a 2.83% physician pay cut Nov. 1.
The 2025 Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment System sets the physician fee schedule conversion factor for 2025 at $32.35, down from $33.29 in 2024.
“The CMS pay cut is a disgrace. As every industry in America is being forced to adjust their pricing due to the out of control inflation over the past two to three years, physicians are being hammered,” Thomas Loftus, MD, neurosurgeon at the Austin (Texas) Neurosurgical Institute, told Becker’s. “Not only are we not receiving inflation-adjusted increases in reimbursement, but the government is actually continuing to whittle away at our practice revenue overall.”
The move follows a trend of declining physician pay. CMS cut overall physician pay by 1.25% for 2024, and, overall, physician reimbursement amounts per Medicare patient decreased around 2.3% between 2005 and 2021 when accounting for inflation, according to a study from the Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute.