Healthcare

A final rule updating the physician fee schedule (PFS) rates was issued by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on December 1, 2020. The Final Rule finalizes many of the changes that were included in the Proposed Rule. Among other updates, the new regulation decreases the 2020 conversion factor of $36.09 to $32.41 and increases work relative value units for evaluation and management codes effective January 1, 2020. The significant decrease in the conversion factor is due to the mandate of budget neutrality.

A final rule updating the physician fee schedule rates was issued by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) this month. The new regulation, which increases the 2019 conversion factor of $36.04 to $36.09 in 2020, will be published in the Federal Register on November 15, 2019.

Did your hospital’s outpatient department begin operations, expand its service lines or relocate after November 2, 2015?

On April 16, 2015, President Obama signed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act into law, which repealed the much-maligned sustainable growth rate formula. Physicians are breathing a sigh of relief as the SGR repeal prevented steep reimbursement cuts that have been threatening physicians since the late 1990s. Now that the focus is off SGR, physicians and policy makers can shift focus to new patient care models that are supported under MACRA.