Hospital outpatient departments are in line for a Medicare rate increase next year, while program payments for physicians could decline.

Driving the news: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Thursday proposed increasing payment for hospital outpatient services by 2.8% increase, or approximately $6 billion, in 2024.

• In a separate proposal, CMS announced an intended overall 1.25% pay decrease for doctors, though rates would go up for some primary care services.

Why it matters: The proposals illustrate physicians' long-time gripe with their Medicare payment system: while hospitals and other providers can get inflation-adjusted rates, physicians can't, leading to annual declines.

• "The proposed Medicare physician payment schedule released today is a critical reminder that patients and physicians desperately need Congress to develop a permanent solution that addresses the financial instability and threatens access to care," said American Medical Association president Jesse Ehrenfeld.

What they're saying: Provider groups voiced early frustration with the physician fee schedule and called on Congress to re-evaluate the way the program pays doctors.

• "We are gravely concerned that the proposed rule's physician payment cuts contained in CMS' conversion factor would add to physicians' uncertainty about their continued ability to provide the highest quality of care to Medicare patients," said Douglas White, president of the American College of Rheumatology, in a...

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