From Name

From Email

To Name

To Email

Message

Summary of 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule

from HBMA

Summary of 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule HBMA On August 3rd, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published the 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) proposed rule. 30-day Implementation Timeline for Final Rule: CMS will shorten the implementation timeline of the final rule from 60-days to 30-days. CMS attributes this shortened timeline to its “significant devotion of resources to the COVID-19 response.” We expect the final rule will be published by December 1st. Telehealth: The CY 2021 PFS proposed rule does not address many of the temporary telehealth flexibilities that CMS implemented during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). CMS acknowledges that the COVID-19 PHE could expire before the PFS final rule is issued. This would disrupt the continuity of those temporary policy (page 88). We anticipate CMS will issue a separate regulation to adopt more of the temporary telehealth policies that it did not propose to permanently adopt in the PFS. CMS is asking for public feedback on how to permanently expand temporary telehealth policies. CMS is adding some of the codes that it temporarily covered during the PHE to the permanent list of telehealth services it covers (Table 8, page 82).  READ MORE

more