Dear friends and colleagues,

And we are off to a running start in 2025! We have some important updates on policy, coding, and staffing. There is a lot of information here, but we feel it is an important summary.

As of this January, AUGS brought on a new consulting firm, McDermott . McDermott exclusively serves the health industry with one-stop consulting, policy and lobbying services supported by data analytics and reimbursement, coding, coverage, and quality reporting knowledge. McDermott staff Deborah Godes, Rachel Hollander, and Marie Knoll will work with the Coding Committee; Kristen O’Brien and Jeffrey Davis will assist with regulatory, physician pay, and AMA work; Rachel Stauffer and Maddie News will assist with advocacy efforts and work of the Scientific Committee. We are thrilled with this new partnership.

Along with the AUGS Board, I would like to acknowledge and extend sincere thanks to Ms. Jill Rathbun of Galileo Consulting Group. Jill was instrumental in keeping AUGS abreast of policy changes and helping the Coding Committee for many years.

To continue offering content that the membership needs and wants, AUGS will be hosting a Coding Webinar in partnership with McDermott on March 12, 2025, at 7 pm EST. This webinar will focus on vital changes impacting your reimbursement in 2025 and will cover the intricacies of using modifiers (-54, -55, -56), transfer of care, telehealth coding changes, use of the G2211 and new G- codes. This is a great opportunity to have your coding questions answered. Please register here.

As you are aware, the policy environment has and will continue to change with the new presidential and congressional administration. The Republican-controlled 119th Congress is looking to advance President Trump’s agenda through a process known as reconciliation and is considering a range of health care policy options; everything from modifying Medicaid benefits and federal Medicaid payments to rescinding Biden-era regulations.

• Read Reconciliation 101 here.
• The current government “continuing resolution” (CR) expires on March 14, 2025, and Congress must act before that deadline to avoid a government shutdown. A “doc fix” could be part of this next CR.
• AUGS joined an AMA sign on letter urging for the inclusion of a Medicare physician fee schedule 6% pay bump for April to December 2025. Without congressional action, the 2.83% cut, which began in January, will continue.
• AUGS will advocate for our NIH research priorities to be included in the annual appropriations process, and we will also advocate for women’s health research during WFRC virtual Hill Day. Stay tuned for more legislative updates.

On the administrative front, President Trump issued numerous executive orders (EOs), including one calling for an end of diversity, equity, and inclusion government programs and one directing how agencies will define women and men, which likely affects current programs at the local levels including funding of current projects. In late January, Trump ordered agencies to pause federal funding that did not comply with seven of his EOs, including those aforementioned. Although the issue is being litigated, it has impacted NIH and National Science Foundation (NSF) programs and grants. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) removed some content from websites and froze all external communications, but the freeze appears to be slowly lifting. We have heard that NIH study sections are restarting, and certain cancelled Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) meetings could be rescheduled if they comply with the EOs. The NIH released guidance capping grant indirect costs at 15%, which would drastically cut research funding. The guidance is being litigated but the policy of capping indirect costs could be picked up by Congress. We urge you to reach out to your local institutional science officers or AUGS if you have experienced problems.

President Trump paused the publication of new regulations and called on federal agencies to review existing regulations, allowing the new administration to review rules put out by the Biden Administration and possibly halt new policies from going into effect. President Trump also announced a deregulation initiative requiring that “whenever an agency promulgates a new rule, regulation, or guidance, it must identify at least 10 existing rules, regulations, or guidance documents to be repealed.” This initiative reiterates a priority of the Trump Administration to eliminate regulations that it believes to be costly, burdensome, and duplicative. We will monitor how this unfolds and how it affects AUGS members.