As you expected, if you have been reading our Alerts, the final version of the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Rule for 2013 contains a massive payment reduction:
Medicare Conversion Factors
20122013Difference
Anesthesia Services(national average)$21.52$15.93-26.0%
Other Services$34.0376$25.0008-26.5%
As you also know, the 26%
and 26.5% cuts are unlikely to go into effect. If they do go into
effect, because Congress fails to take action before December 31st,
Congress will almost certainly enact a fix early in the new year, as it
has done every year but one (2002) since the Sustainable Growth Rate
(SGR) formula first start mandating reduction.
In announcing the Final Rule, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) itself said:
The final rule with comment period also
includes a statutorily required 26.5 percent across-the-board reduction
to Medicare payment rates for more than 1 million physicians and
non-physician practitioners under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997’s
Sustainable Growth...
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