Tuesday, February 28, 2012

2012 Physician Fee Schedule: Get Ready For ED E/M Coding Adjustments, Telehealth Coverage, and Other Changes

Look at these RVU changes to calculate your 2012 payments

In case you were anticipating a reprieve this year from the recession cost stresses on EDs, the word is that you can assume a complete decrease of 1.5 percent in this year's 2012 CMS payments. Read this medical coding article for how 2012 physician fee schedule breaks down and will influence your ED billing.

Look For Small ED E/M RVUs Decreases

As per the 2012 final rule, emergency medicine will go through a -1 percent update to complete RVU values in 2012. This is free of any change to the conversion factor.

The RVUs for ED E/M codes, the main factor in determining ED reimbursement, have only second decimal point adjustments chiefly owing to small changes in practice expense. Of note, the work RVUs have not altered for 2012 and remain steady at 2011 levels.

Anticipate More Pay for Initial, Subsequent Observation

The good news is that now you can look for huge RVU gains for initial and subsequent observation care services, even though the same day observation admit as well as discharge codes will remain close to the 2011 values.

2012 Physician Fee Schedule Update: Get Ready For Pay Upticks for These ED Procedures

The 2012 RVUs allocated to complex abscess drainage 10061 (Incision and drainage of abscess [e.g. carbuncle, suppurative hidradentits , cutaneous or subcutaneous abscess, cyst, furuncle, or paronychia]; complicated or multiple) will increase by almost 9 percent and the CPR code 92950 (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation [e.g., in cardiac arrest] will go through a 5 percent increase. The intermediate laceration codes had diverse results. Some of the code work RVUs were reduced slightly and a few of the intermediate code values were augmented.

Telehealth Coverage For ED Services Gets Approval

As per 2012 physician fee schedule, CMS has extended its telehealth site promotion to take in EDs, which implies that EDs are now qualified site for telehealth coverage. The ED was not taken as a qualified site of services earlier, but for 2012, Medicare is creating novel code descriptors for the telehealth codes. The definition is now being expanded further than inpatients and also includes the emergency department.

Ultrasounds take a hit: once those services are discounted under MPPR rules.

CMS has sustained its interest in bundling "like procedures" and imposing discounts when multiple services are delivered in a single setting. This discounting system, the Multiple Procedure Payment Reduction (MPPR), was earlier restricted to the facility or technical component of imaging. The program has now been expanded to involve the professional element of CTs, MRIs, and ultrasounds. In MPPR, subsequent studies will be discounted by 25 percent. The developed priced study will be paid at the full fee schedule and the second study will be paid at 75 percent of the physician fee schedule .

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