Speak Up on the Proposed Fee Schedule

APTA can help you add your voice to our advocacy efforts on the proposed 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. Our comment letter tool makes it easy for you to tell CMS about the impact of the fee schedule on your own practice and patient care. Short on time? You can fill out and send our prewritten template letter.

The Issue

The proposed 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule rule once again includes a payment reduction to nearly all clinical specialties, including to outpatient physical therapists. However, in response to immense legislative and regulatory pressure from APTA advocates, the proposed rule contains two key wins for the profession. First, CMS proposes general supervision for PTAs in Part B settings. Additionally, the agency also proposes to allow an order or referral from a physician to serve as the signature on the therapist’s plan of care. Both proposals are the result of years persistent advocacy to CMS through comment letters and on Capitol Hill via the REDUCE Act and EMPOWER Act.

Why It Matters

Payment to dozens of professions continues to be cut year-over-year to no avail. To stop these cuts, CMS must permanently fix the fee schedule. In the meantime, allowing PTAs to be supervised virtually will greatly increase their ability to access and treat patients. Similarly, making an exception to the plan of care signature requirements will maximize the time PTs can spend treating patients. Both are positive steps towards reducing administrative burden and expanding provider autonomy.

Our Position 

APTA strenuously opposes any attempt to reduce payment for physical therapy under Medicare, and will continue to advocate to both CMS and Congress for an overhaul of the fee schedule.

As these payment cuts affect a variety of stakeholders, APTA is working diligently with the wider clinician community to mitigate the impact of these cuts. Additionally, APTA will continue to advocate alongside our sister therapy organizations to secure general supervision of PTAs in all Medicare settings and finalize the exception to the plan of care signature requirements. But we can’t do it alone.

Opportunities for Action 

In this year’s proposal for the 2025 fee schedule, APTA members have an incredible opportunity to advocate on two keys issues that, if finalized, will positively impact the physical therapy profession.

To secure this win, APTA offers two different ways to get involved. Members have the choice of either submitting a template letter or using APTA’s comment letter tool to tell CMS about their personal experiences providing care to Medicare patients. No matter what way you chose to raise your voice, we need to garner support to get these proposals across the finish line. Learn more about both options at the APTA Regulatory Action Center.

Stay Up to Date

To learn more about other proposals in this year’s fee schedule, watch APTA's Regulatory, Legislative, and Payment Updates webinar from Aug. 8. The webinar is free for members. 

You can also listen to APTA staff experts Andrew Amari, JD, and Rachel Miller, MPH, share wins and challenges from the proposed fee schedule in this APTA Podcast episode released Aug. 6.

APTA members can join the APTA Advocacy Network for free to receive action alerts on federal legislative issues and more.