Comment on CMS-2026-2377-0001
Kristi WareOpposeIndividual
Summary: A nurse with 24 years of experience in dermatology opposes the proposed 7% payment reduction and changes to modifier 25. The commenter argues that these cuts will lead to clinic closures, reduced staffing, and barriers to care for elderly patients who may need multiple procedures in a single visit.
My hope is for Medicare to reconsider the 7% payment reduction for PFS 2027. I have worked as a nurse in dermatology for 24 years. These cuts to reimbursement for services provided to patients can be detrimental to practices. It forces clinics/ physicians to cut staff and in some rural areas could force shutdowns.
The biggest impact to our patients will be the changes with modifier 25. In the field of dermatology, a majority of patients affected by skin cancers are elderly and over the age of 65 years. Some of this population are unable to drive forcing them to rely on caregivers or transportation. If the modifier 25 cut takes place this will prevent physicians from being able to address multiple skin issues/ diagnosis at one visit. On most occasions during our visits, patients have lesions that require skin biopsies as well as cryotherapy to precancerous lesions. Elderly patients are not able to travel to multiple appointments frequently due to physical health and also barriers with travel/ transportation.
It is very discouraging to healthcare workers when insurance dictates the care that a patient receives. Healthcare workers and physicians truly have the best interest of the patient and want to be able to care for them and provider the most quality care possible.
In the future, I am afraid to see what happens to healthcare in general. With all of these mandatory cuts and regulations it prevents any younger generation from wanting to join the healthcare field at all and definitely prevents students from wanting to pursue a career as a physician. How does our government plan to recruit healthcare teams and physicians to continue to care for the citizens of our country? If these regulations continue to impact the healthcare workforce negatively it will eventually drive out multiple healthcare workers from continuing to practice. This will only create more of a strain on the healthcare system creating even longer wait times for patients to receive healthcare which can be detrimental and potentially deadly to our population. Not only in dermatology, but across the board for health, some medical conditions take a priority and early detection of certain diseases are the key to longevity for patients.