Taking Key Radiology Issues to The Hill During ACR 2025

Attendees at ACR 2025, the American College of Radiology® (ACR®) annual meeting in Washington, DC, will have the opportunity to meet with their congressional representatives and staff during Capitol Hill Day May 7, to discuss the College’s legislative priorities. Hill Day participants will advocate for legislation to permanently reform Medicare physician payment and to amend the appropriate use criteria (AUC) section of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA). ACR members will advise lawmakers that savings associated with the amended PAMA can be used to help offset the cost of implementing Medicare physician payment reform.

For the last several years, physicians have relied on last-minute annual congressional updates to minimize Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)-mandated cuts to the formula used to calculate physician payment in Medicare. Neither physicians nor lawmakers want to continue this annual ritual, and both parties are seeking a longer lasting solution that would provide stability and predictably to physician practices. Hill Day attendees will advocate to include legislative language in the impending budget bill currently being debated in Congress.  

ACR members will also work to gather support for legislation to amend the AUC section of PAMA. Legislative amendments are needed to overcome several administrative hurdles identified by CMS to finally implement PAMA, which was enacted in 2014. PAMA was originally enacted to reduce low value imaging through consultation of physician-developed AUC, simplifying the consultation process for the ordering physician, reducing unnecessary imaging and saving the Medicare system and beneficiaries money. 

For more information, contact Josh Cooper, ACR Vice President, Congressional Affairs, Government Relations.