The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced more concerning proposals that will affect access to care and reimbursement. Host Dr. Andrew Pouw reconvenes last year&#x27;s guests from the Academy&#x27;s DC office—Dr. John McAllister, Brandy Keys, and Rebecca Hyder—to unpack the proposed 2027 Physician Fee Schedule and explain how the changes will disproportionately burden surgical specialties.<br>For all episodes or to claim CME credit for selected episodes, visit www.aao.org/podcasts.

Another Consecutive Year of Medicare Cuts

Experts InSight

From the American Academy of Ophthalmology, this is Experts InSight, practical conversations with experts across the spectrum of ophthalmology. Your host for today's episode is Dr. Andrew Powell, a glaucoma surgeon at the University of Iowa.

Last summer, we recorded an episode called CMS Cuts Rock Ophthalmology in Medicine. I had hoped that'd be a one-off title rather than the beginning of like a recurring franchise of releases. Unfortunately, here we are. The cuts we discussed last year did get finalized and went into effect this past January. You know, Congress did provide a temporary 2.5%

increase to the Medicare conversion factor for this year, which softened some of the immediate damage, but that was just a temporary boost. And now CMS has released its proposed 2027 physician fee schedule, where that temporary boost is scheduled to disappear, the conversion factor would actually fall again by 1.68%, and even additional policy changes mean that the

Academy estimates ophthalmology as a specialty faces a reduction of about 4 further percent. And that headline still doesn't fully express or describe what an individual practice might really experience. So today's goal is to disentangle what was the continuation of last year's policies, what is newly proposed, and what this could mean for actual ophthalmic services,

as well as what we can still do about it. And I'm lucky again to be joined by three guests who are expert in fighting through all this change. They're all returning from our episode last time. I'll start with Dr. John McAllister, our comprehensive ophthalmologist at the Northern Virginia Ophthalmology Associates Practice. Dr. McAllister serves on the Academy's Health Policy Committee and the AMA

Another Consecutive Year of Medicare Cuts

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

Another Consecutive Year of Medicare Cuts

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.