CMS Proposed Fee Schedule for 2016 Overview

As we previously published, on July 15, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published its proposed rule to update the Medicare physician fee schedule for 2016. Among the many proposals, CMS seeks comment on whether to add Open Payments data to its “Physician Compare” website. Additionally, the proposal includes funding previously controversial advance care planning codes, the first regulations implementing the post-SGR legislation, Stark Law exceptions, and more.
Comments are due no later than 5 p.m. on September 8, 2015. You may submit electronic comments on this regulation to www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for ‘‘submitting a comment.’’ In commenting, refer to file code CMS–1631–P.
Download the 2016 Fee Schedule Proposed Rule
Open Payments
In our previous article, we wrote that CMS continues its support of the Physician Compare website, stating that it supports the agency’s “overarching goals of providing consumers with quality of care information that will help them make informed decisions about their health care, while encouraging clinicians to improve the quality of care they provide to their patients.” In the proposal, CMS is seeking comment about including Open Payments data on individual physician pages. “Although these data are already publicly available, consumer testing has also indicated that additional context, wording, and data display considerations can help consumers better understand the informatio...

Source: Policy and Medicine - August 21, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs