SCAI, working with two coalitions representing the medical community, successfully lobbied Congress to overturn harmful cuts proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS). Signed by the President on December 28, 2020, the new law will reduce the planned Medicare procedural cuts of about 9% to about 2%, and keep the increases in payments for most evaluation and management (E&M) services. The net effect is a 4.1% increase in average fees for interventional cardiologists in 2021. Attached is a list of the changes for the 95 procedures that interventional cardiologists most commonly bill to Medicare.

Interventional cardiologists should work with their billing staff to understand important E&M changes for 2021. There is a new add-on code, G2212, for prolonged services and documentation requirements that have been reduced. A good source of information on these changes is AMA’s website.

Nevertheless, SCAI urges caution: procedural volumes are down; stress and costs from the pandemic abound; and according to current law, Medicare fees will be cut by 2% in April to comply with Congressional budget rules. We will continue to fight these additional cuts. Your support in these efforts will be greatly appreciated. 

We also thank those SCAI members that wrote to their Members of Congress to stop the cuts. Without your critical grassroots effort, this $3+ billion cut would not have been avoided. While it may be early in this Congressional session to begin pushing for new legislation, we anticipate gearing up as soon as possible.

Thanks for your efforts in avoiding the threatened 2021 fee cuts!