Medicare Physician Fee Schedule changes for 2011

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a 2011 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) Final Rule Correction Notice to revise some physician work, practice expense (PE) and malpractice (MP) relative value units (RVUs) set forth in the 2011 MPFS Final Rule, published in the Nov. 29, 2010 Federal Register.

Subsequent legislative changes occurring after the publishing of the correction notice have made additional revisions affecting Medicare payments to physicians necessary. Of particular importance is the Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act of 2011, which President Obama signed into law Dec. 15, 2010. This Act averts the negative update to the fee schedule that would have otherwise taken effect Jan. 1 and provides a zero percent update to the MPFS for claims with dates of service Jan. 1, 2011 through Dec. 31, 2011.

While the PFS update is zero percent, there was an adjustment to the conversion factor (CF) to make the changes budget neutral. The revised CF that will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2011 is $33.9764.

For more information you can view the transmittal here:

http://www.cms.gov/transmittals/downloads/R828OTN.pdf