2024 Federal Legislative Recap

The ACR ended 2024 incredibly disappointed that this long-negotiated package does not include several crucial policies that would improve access to care for patients and instead:

• Only extended Medicare telehealth flexibilities through March (versus a two-year extension in the original bill), risking barriers for the most vulnerable patients and disruptions in operations;
• Allowed a 2.8% cut to Medicare reimbursement to go into effect (versus a 2% mitigation in the original bill, still down from the substantial reforms advocated for by the College);
• Omitted substantial reforms to the business practices of pharmacy benefit managers that were included in the original bill and promised savings in the billions to the healthcare system; and
• Failed to address administrative burdens by including language reforming prior authorization requirements or step therapy protocols.

2025 is a new year with a new Congress. We have another chance with a budget bill in March. Many of these items remain fresh in the minds of returning legislators and language and one-pagers about these issues are already being introduced to those in their first term.

The work continues—you can push these policy priorities forward by contacting your legislators directly through the legislative action center or contributing to RheumPAC to facilitate the College’s support of rheumatology champions in Congress.