The Academy is calling on members to help stop a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposal to cut reimbursement for 27 office-based eye codes when two diagnostic services are billed by the same physician on the same day for a patient. The CMS proposal would cut the technical component for the second and subsequent services by 25 percent. The Academy believes these arbitrary cuts would have a negative impact on Medicare beneficiaries’ access to high-quality care, and make it increasingly difficult for physicians to maintain a comprehensive private practice.

As part of the campaign to halt the cut, the Academy is urging congressional support for a letter by U.S. Reps. John Barrow, D-Ga., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., to Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator of CMS, opposing its implementation. The Academy requests that members write their representative to urge her or him to sign on to the Barrow/Blackburn letter.