CMS unveils new physician fee schedule

The proposed 2002 schedule completes the four-year phase-in of practice expense values and adds new services to the benefits package.

By Jane Cys, AMNews correspondent. Aug. 20, 2001.

Washington -- The 2002 Medicare physician fee schedule released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in early August contains positive changes, but major question marks remain, according to physician groups' initial analyses of the proposal.

Some of the changes were expected, such as the final installment of the phase-in for resource-based practice expense values. And some, including giving groups additional time to submit updated practice expense data to CMS, were welcomed.

Physician groups cautioned that some of the changes in the proposal are complex and require time to understand and assess. More detailed analyses will be completed, and written comments will be submitted to the agency by Oct. 1. Medicare expects to spend about $45 billion on physician services in 2002.

The physician fee schedule specifies Medicare's payment rates to doctors for more than 7,000 services and procedures. CMS is scheduled to publish the final 2002 Medicare fee schedule in November.

That rule, which will include the overall update to physician rates, takes effect Jan. 1.

Next year will be the first year that physician rates use 100% resource-based practice expense values. The agency has been phasing in resource-based values for four years. Previously, the values were based on historical charges.

The move toward resource-based values, which generally redistributed money to office-based specialties from hospital-based specialties, generated much controversy in the physician community. [...]