Medicare is once again being disingenuous in its attempts to better compensate primary care physicians. Their usual method is to promise something that will allegedly improve what primary care physicians are paid, but the process one must complete to receive that increase is so complicated and time consuming that the piddling amount one receives is not worth the effort. Thus, they wear you down and win again. Plus if Family Medicine gets an increase, some other group of physicians (such as surgeons) are the sacrificial lambs and must take a cut. That’s what they call “budget neutrality.” The government spends the exact same amount for all physicians year after year. So, if this year, family medicine is receiving a bonus, some other doctors pay for it. How do ya like them apples!
CMS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, devised a new billing code, G2211, to compensate doctors an additional $16.04 for “serving as the focal point for all of the patient’s healthcare services needs or providing ongoing medical care related to a patient’s single, serious, or complex condition….$16.04 compensates doctors for the cognitive labor of following patients with complex diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, or polycystic ovaries.” This is meant to pay the doctor for all the uncompensated work he performs for the patient….$16.04 is supposed to cover that? What a joke!
Family physicians are appreciative of the increase but know this is another of the many gimmicks CMS uses to appease physicians. How dumb do they think we are?
Then budget neutrality enters the fray and mandates a cut in reimbursement for some other docs to offset the increase to family doctors. Needless to say, those doctors are upset with the reduction and scream “bloody murder!” This decision resulted in 19 surgical societies sending a letter to CMS to complain. That, of course, did nothing but make the senders feel better because CMS isn’t changing anything to help doctors. NO WAY!
“Primary care really has been undervalued and underpaid for a long time. If you’re managing a problem longitudinally, you’re doing a lot of extra coordination of care. $16 probably doesn’t cover it.” And I don’t think it helps, either.
Reference: Arnold C. Docs Land Nearly $400 million in First Year of Controversial Medicare Billing Code Medscape 2026 March 2.
