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GOVERNMENT & MEDICINENew Medicare bonus payments kick in for rural doctorsMost physicians will receive the extra money automatically, but others will have to attach a special modifier to their Medicare claims.By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. Jan. 31, 2005. Washington -- If you're a physician working in a part of the country with relatively few other doctors, you may soon notice a boost in your Medicare payments. January brought the launch of a new 5% bonus payment from the federal government for doctors practicing in newly designated Physician Scarcity Areas. In some cases, the money will be on top of an existing 10% add-on that applies to less prevalent regions known as Health Professional Shortage Areas. Congress approved the new bonus as part of Medicare reform legislation in 2003. Rural lawmakers said the provision was necessary to retain doctors in areas with the highest patient-to-physician ratios and to encourage more practitioners to begin working there. In most cases, doctors won't need to do anything special to receive the extra dollars. For those practicing in the ZIP codes that make the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ratio cutoff, the 5% bonus will automatically show up on a quarterly basis. But some eligible doctors will need to be vigilant if they want to see the money. The Health Resources & Services Administration issued a warning through its rural health policy office last October stating that some ZIP codes that are technically within a shortage area are not set up for automatic payment because of differences between Medicare and U.S. Census Bureau data. Doctors in these areas will need to add a special modifier to their Medicare claims to get the bonus. Physicians can consult the CMS Web site to determine whether they are eligible for the bonus, and, if so, whether they need to use the modifier. [...]Full text of AMNews content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2005 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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