When Congress passed its year-end omnibus legislation in the final days of 2022, it included a 2% Medicare physician payment cut for 2023. As a result, the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) has updated the 2023 conversion factor to $33.8872 for 2023.

Noridian—California’s Medicare contractor—is working to update its 2023 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule to reflect this change, and is expected to post the updated fee schedule by this weekend.

The late fee schedule update should have minimal impact on physician cash flow because, under current law, clean electronic claims are not paid sooner than 14 calendar days (29 for paper claims) after the date of receipt.

For more information on the final 2023 Medicare Physician Payment Rule, see the American Medical Association (AMA) summary. (Note: The AMA summary has not been updated to reflect the final congressional action that stopped 6.5% of the 8.5% cut and extended all telehealth COVID-19 waivers for two more years.)

CMA is urging Congress to immediately get to work on a long-term overhaul of the Medicare payment system that includes an annual automatic inflation update, addresses budget neutrality, and provides more alternative payment model opportunities.