08/28/2025
ASIPP is advocating strongly on behalf of interventional pain physicians, sending letters to Congress urging revisions to the proposed 2025 Physician Payment Rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). While ASIPP supports CMS’s goals of reducing waste, improving quality, and strengthening chronic disease management, the current proposal would have devastating consequences for interventional pain practices. These sweeping cuts risk accelerating healthcare consolidation, reducing patient access to pain specialists, and worsening physician burnout, at a time when practice costs are soaring, staff wages are rising, and reimbursement rates continue to fall.
Since 2001, interventional pain physicians have experienced some of the steepest cuts across all specialties, 41% through 2025, projected to reach 45% with the new rule. Even with modest office-based payment relief projected for 2026, the cumulative losses remain unsustainable.
ASIPP is urging Congress to:
• Reverse the proposed 2.5% efficiency adjustment to work RVUs and stop the cycle of devastating cuts every three years.
• Promote equitable treatment of independent pain practices in practice expense allocations, especially for services provided in Ambulatory Surgery Centers.
• Ensure the permanent extension of telehealth access beyond 2025, critical for chronic pain patients in rural and underserved areas.
• Direct CMS to distinguish reimbursement reductions between hospital-employed and independent physicians, protecting small pain practices from disproportionate harm.
Without these revisions, independent interventional pain practices, already under audit pressure and burdened by prior authorization requirements, face an uncertain future. Preserving their viability is essential to maintain patient access to timely, high-quality pain care and to prevent further healthcare consolidation that continues to drive up costs by 200–300%.
SAMPLE LETTER TO SEND TO REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS
ASIPP has prepared a sample letter you can personalize and send to your representatives in Congress. Find your congressional members here: https://ow.ly/TcES50WNLUx
By speaking out, you can help stop devastating cuts, protect independent interventional pain practices, and preserve patient access to high-quality pain care.
Sample letter to send to your representatives: https://ow.ly/bfpw50WNLUA
SAMPLE LETTER TO SUBMIT COMMENTS TO CMS
For your convenience, we are enclosing a sample letter for you to customize and send to CMS to express concerns with the 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
Sample letter to submit to CMS: https://ow.ly/bfpw50WNLUA
INFORMATION FOR SUBMITTING YOUR COMMENT LETTER
In commenting, please refer to file code CMS-1832-P. Comments must be received no later than 5 p.m. on September 12, 2025.
Submit electronic comments: https://ow.ly/u0ql50WNLUu
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or would like additional information.
