National Government Services, Inc. Medicare Monthly Review Part A and B
A Combined Part A and Part B Newsletter

MMR-2007- 09B, September 2007

Accessing the CMS Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Database

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has developed a Web site to provide information on services on the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Database (MPFSDB). The site is designed to take you through the selection steps prior to the display of the information.

It provides information on more than 10,000 physician services, the associated relative value units (RVU), fee schedule status indicators and various payment policy indicators needed for payment adjustment, (i.e., payment of assistant at surgery, team surgery, bilateral surgery, etc.). The Medicare physician fee schedule pricing amounts are adjusted to reflect the variation in practice costs from area to area. It allows you to do a comparison of RVUs for CPT code(s) for previous years as compared to this year’s RVUs for the same CPT code(s). This is always important in explaining the variance(s) in payment.

The CMS Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Page Web Site is located at: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/pfslookup/step0.asp . You may go directly to this site or hyperlink by going to our 2007 Fee Schedule page.

In addition, the “Step-by-Step Instructions for Using the CMS Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Database (MPFSDB)” may be accessed on the 2007 Fee Schedule Page or directly at: http://www.empiremedicare.com/partb/step_by_step_instructions_mpfsdb.pdf .

The legend or key – MPFSDB Description of Indicators - will provide you with a description of the indicators that will decode the MPFSDB. This may be accessed through the 2007 Fee Schedule Page or: http://www.empiremedicare.com/partb/PET0876.pdf .