The proposed reductions affect a range of office-based procedures in a variety of surgical specialties, including Prostatic Urethral Lift (PUL) using the UroLift® System. This proposed CMS rule does not impact hospital outpatient or ASC settings reimbursement for the UroLift System. We anticipate the 2022 MPFS Final Rule will be published during the fourth quarter of 2021. The public comment period is open until 5pm EST September 13.
Physician advocacy is critical to ensuring Congress hears your voice to protect patient access to office-based surgical care. You can reach out to your lawmakers to share your concerns or submit comments directly to CMS by going to Regulations.gov. You can also view submitted comments at this site.
When the UroLift System was developed, both urologists and patients indicated their need for a minimally invasive procedure to treat BPH that can be performed in physicians’ offices. The UroLift System can be successfully performed in any standard care setting, and office site of care is preferred by many patients because of its convenience and accessibility. The UroLift System is now part of the standard of care and a BPH treatment of choice for many of you and your patients based on the strength of supporting clinical studies, real-world data, and low rates of complication and reintervention.1, 2 For these reasons, it is important to retain the flexibility that would allow this procedure to be offered in the comfort and convenience of the office setting for appropriate patients.
We are concerned the proposed rule will have unintended consequences that could impact Medicare beneficiaries’ ability to be treated with the UroLift System in an office site of service. It is also worth noting that, when given a choice, many patients would prefer to have minor procedures performed in their physician’s office rather than having to go to a hospital or other facility.3
We are engaging with CMS and with professional and patient organizations to discuss the impact of the Proposed Rule through the public comment period. During a call we had recently with CMS on this topic, we believe we helped them understand the potentially significant impact this could have on patient access to proven, safe, effective, and less invasive procedures, including the UroLift System, in lower-cost settings such as the physician's office. Our comments were submitted to CMS at the end of August. Here are highlights:
American College of Surgeons
The ACS advocacy stance on the proposed 2022 MPFS Rule.
https://www.facs.org/advocacy/federal/medicare
https://www.facs.org/media/press-releases/2021/cms-rule-071421
Physician Issue Summary - CMS Proposed 2022 Rule for MPFS
CMS Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule Fact Sheet
This fact sheet provides information on the 2022 MPFS Proposed Rule.
Take Action: Send a Message to U.S. Congress
A prewritten email message that can be sent to request that Congress take action to block the Medicare physician payment cuts.
https://www.votervoice.net/iframes/SVS/Campaigns/86860/Respond
Source Information
1. Roehrborn, Can J Urol 2017
2. Kaplan, Analysis of Real-world Healthcare Claims, EAU Conference Presentation, 2021. Study sponsored by Teleflex.
3. https://www.facs.org/media/press-releases/2020/rule-announcement-120120
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