A patient can leave a doctor’s office with a new prescription in minutes. However, getting help to stop one that is no longer needed can be much harder, even when it is causing side effects or is no longer effective.
Safely tapering a drug may take months of dose adjustments, symptom monitoring, family support, and coordination among doctors, pharmacists, and therapists. For years, much of that work has been hard to see—harder for physicians to get paid for.
On May 4, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new guidance clarifying that physicians and care teams may bill Medicare for supervised deprescribing under existing care management codes. The agency created no new billing codes and raised no payment rates.
