Medicare fee schedule proposed rule needs work

Physicians last week submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on its proposed rule to revise the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and Part B. Some of the provisions align with physicians ’ previous recommendations while others will require some changes, especially those that mean more costs for patients and undercut the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). The AMA last weeksubmitted a letter to CMS urging changes throughout the proposed rule while also citing areas of agreement that should be finalized. Three of the proposed policies that physicians recommended changes to include:Collecting data on every 10-minute increment of patient care activities before and after each surgery or procedure. CMS proposed a new series of eight G-codes intended to collect data on the pre- and post-operative activities in 10- and 90-day global services.   The G-codes are based on place of service, complexity of patient, and completion time. Asking physicians and their staff to use 10-minute increments to document all their non-operating room patient care activities is by itself an incredible burden, and especially so during MACRA implementation— the most significant payment system change in 25 years.A significant weakness with these G-codes is the inability to match them with the E/M services assumed to be bundled in the current global surgical package.“Layering on a new regulation that requires reports based on 10-minute increments of...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news