The Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule has been issued by CMS. The RBMA Federal Affairs Committee, chaired by Matt DesRosiers of Winchester Radiology in Winchester, VA, is ready to begin a detailed review and comments within the next 60 days.
Of note is that the proposed rule does not address two key issues that have been looming for radiology. CMS did not address the proposed implementation of Appropriate Use Criteria/Clinical Decision Support scheduled to take effect January 1, 2021. While 2020 is a testing year, it was widely expected that CMS would propose a delay of the implementation date due to the coronavirus emergency and the lack of preparedness by CMS and health care providers.
CMS also did not address the proposed changes to Evaluation and Management coding that will revalue EM codes to the detriment of radiology. The proposed policy will drive over a 10% reduction in radiology fees for Medicare patients. DesRosiers noted that “a 10% cut in radiology fees is simply not sustainable and will cause many radiology groups to reconsider Medicare participation.â€
RBMA will be working with a broad coalition of radiology organizations including the American College of Radiology and eOrdering Coalition as well as RBMA’s government relations consultant, Thorn Run Partners, in drafting comments to CMS on the proposed rule. Watch for more updates in RadCast and RBMA’s Washington Insider.
|
