Congress’ year-end spending bill includes increase to Medicare physician fee schedule, surprise medical bill protection -

Sweeping federal legislation signed into law on Dec. 27 combines $1.4-trillion in spending allocations with a $900-billion pandemic relief package. Among the provisions of the bill are several relating to healthcare:

..A one-time increase to the Medicare physician fee schedule this year of 3.75% to mitigate losses caused by COVID-19;

..Extensions of the temporary suspension of Medicare sequestration to Mar. 31 as well as the increased payments for work-related physician fees where labor costs are lower than the national average to the end of 2023; and

..A $25.4-billion fund for contact tracing and testing related to COVID-19. That total includes $3 billion to reimburse care providers negatively affected by the pandemic.

The legislation also includes limits out-of-network providers can bill individuals to fees based on in-service rates. Patients would then have those out-of-network charges applied to their in-network deductible. The so-called surprise medical bill law is set to go into effect in 2022.