CMS Announces Proposed Changes to Physician Fee Schedule Methodology Substantial Increases in Payments for Time Spent With Patients The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a notice proposing changes to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) that will improve the accuracy of payments to physicians for the services they furnish to Medicare benefic-iaries. The proposed notice includes substantial increases for “evaluation and management” services, that is, time and effort that physicians spend with patients in evaluating their condition, and advising and assisting them in managing their health. The changes reflect the recommendations of the Relative Value Update Committee (RUC) of the American Medical Association. The proposed notice will appear in the June 29 Federal Register. Comments will be accepted until August 21, 2006. CMS responses to public comments on the proposals in this notice will be combined with those for the upcoming MPFS notice of proposed rulemaking in a final MPFS rule scheduled for publication this fall. If adopted, the RVU revisions in this proposed notice would be fully implemented for services to Medicare beneficiaries on or after January 1, 2007, while the practice expense revisions would be phased in over a four-year period. To view the entire press release, go to http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?Counter=1887. To view the display copy of the proposed notice (CMS-1512-PN), go to http://www.cms.hhs.gov/PhysicianFeeSched/PFSFRN/itemdetail.asp?filterType=none&filterByDID=0&sortByDID=4&sort To view more MPFS information, go to http://www.cms.hhs.gov/PhysicianFeeSched/ CMS Learn Resource 200606-11
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