According to CMS, the total payments under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) in CY 2012 will be $80 billion.
In an effort to ensure Medicare is paying appropriately for physician services and more closely managing the payment system, the agency is expanding the potentially misvalued code initiative, a July 1 CMS press release notes.
In 2011, the agency is focusing on the highest volume and dollar codes billed by physicians to find out whether these codes are overvalued and if E/M codes are undervalued. Prior to this, the agency targeted specific codes for review that may have impacted a few procedural specialties like cardiology, radiology or nuclear medicine however not taken a look at the highest expenditure codes across all specialties, the agency cites.
Strong efforts are required to assess fee schedule for Medicare ( Source "http://www.supercoder.com/coding-tools/fee-schedules") to see to it that it is paying right and ensuring that Medicare beneficiaries remain to have access to vital services, the release stresses. That aside, the agency is also proposing some changes in how it adjusts payment for geographic variation in the cost of practice.
Other changes in the proposed rule include:
The agency is also proposing to expand its multiple procedure payment reduction to the professional interpretation of advance imaging services to recognize the overlapping activities that go into valuing these services, the agency release cites.
The agency is also proposing criteria for a health risk assessment to be used with AWVs for which coverage began on January 1 this year under the affordable care act.
The agency will accept comments on the proposed rule until August 30 this year.
For more on this fee schedule update, click here
In an effort to ensure Medicare is paying appropriately for physician services and more closely managing the payment system, the agency is expanding the potentially misvalued code initiative, a July 1 CMS press release notes.
In 2011, the agency is focusing on the highest volume and dollar codes billed by physicians to find out whether these codes are overvalued and if E/M codes are undervalued. Prior to this, the agency targeted specific codes for review that may have impacted a few procedural specialties like cardiology, radiology or nuclear medicine however not taken a look at the highest expenditure codes across all specialties, the agency cites.
Strong efforts are required to assess fee schedule for Medicare ( Source "http://www.supercoder.com/coding-tools/fee-schedules") to see to it that it is paying right and ensuring that Medicare beneficiaries remain to have access to vital services, the release stresses. That aside, the agency is also proposing some changes in how it adjusts payment for geographic variation in the cost of practice.
Other changes in the proposed rule include:
The agency is also proposing to expand its multiple procedure payment reduction to the professional interpretation of advance imaging services to recognize the overlapping activities that go into valuing these services, the agency release cites.
The agency is also proposing criteria for a health risk assessment to be used with AWVs for which coverage began on January 1 this year under the affordable care act.
The agency will accept comments on the proposed rule until August 30 this year.
For more on this fee schedule update, click here
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