Proposed legislation released on March 8 by the U.S. House of Representatives omits dozens of critical policies that Congress failed to address in their December spending package, including funding for a needed payment boost under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.

The proposed continuing resolution, or CR, extends the policies of the December 2024 package through the remainder of fiscal year 2025, which ends Sept. 30.

As APTA reported earlier, Congress passed a CR in December 2024 that funded the government through March 14 and extended telehealth waivers but failed to provide extra funding to address the 2025 fee schedule. It was expected the additional funding for the fee schedule would be included in this new package.

Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., APTA, AMA, and other health care provider groups have been pushing to include the APTA-supported Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act of 2025 (H.R. 879) in the legislative package. H.R. 879, sponsored by Murphy, would fully eliminate the 2.8% fee schedule cut and provide for an inflation adjustment starting April 1. On Feb. 28, APTA joined AMA and 90 other national health care provider groups in a joint letter to the U.S. Congress urging them to include H.R. 879 in the new spending package.

The proposed CR does maintain current telehealth flexibilities through September and extends the Medicare work geographic index floor.

A Call to Action From APTA President Kyle Covington
"The proposed spending package released by Congress on March 8 is deeply concerning in its failure to address the 2025 Medicare Fee Schedule," said APTA President Kyle Covington, PT, DPT, PhD, in a March 10 statement. "This oversight ignores the critical challenges that health care providers, including physical therapists, are facing due to declining reimbursement rates and mounting administrative burdens.

"The unsustainable payment cuts affecting health care professionals, especially physical therapists, threaten not only the viability of practices but also the quality of care available to Medicare beneficiaries. This inaction will have serious consequences both for the Medicare program and the many patients it serves."

Covington continued, "The American Physical Therapy Association joins more than 100 other health care organizations, including the American Medical Association, to urge Congress to take immediate action to address the Medicare payment issue as part of the continuing resolution set to expire on March 14."

 The CR is not but any means a "done deal" given the slim Republican majority in the House. Murphy has threatened to vote against any CR that does not contain a fee schedule fix. A vote by the full U.S. House could come as early as Tuesday. If it passes the House, the CR will need to obtain 60 Senate votes to pass. This will require at least seven Democrats to join with the 53 Senate Republicans.

APTA is continuing to work with AMA and our coalition partners over the next several days to push for the inclusion of additional funding in the CR to fix for the 2025 Medicare Fee Schedule. Congress has until midnight March 14 to pass a spending package or face a government shutdown.

APTA Members Urged to Contact Congress
As physical therapy advocates, we must act now. A vote by the full U.S. House could come as early as tonight, so take a few minutes right now to call your House of Representatives member and urge them to include legislative language to reverse the fee schedule payment cuts that became effective Jan. 1. You can find your representative's phone number by going to house.gov and entering your ZIP code. Then visit the APTA Patient Action Center for a sample customizable script to guide your call. Be sure to explain how these cuts affect your patients, your business, and your community.