Meet the New Fee Schedule - AKA 2009 2.0
Welcome to the first article for 2010.
Knowing some of you the way I do, I gave you 8 days to sober up from your New Year's celebrations, and I bid you welcome.
For some of my more hardcore partying compatriots in the writing community who are reading this while catching up on what you've missed, I hope you had a pleasant Valentine's Day.
I myself spent the early morning hours here in Milwaukee recreating the famous road-building scene in the classic film "Cool Hand Luke", with the exceptions being that the dirt and gravel on my shovel was replaced by snow, and George Kennedy was nowhere around to help me finish shoveling.
We're now in 2010, and while we were celebrating, a few changes occurred to the proposed 2010 Physician Fee Schedule that I thought I'd share with you to bring you up to date.
Perhaps it is better to begin this explanation by reintroducing you to the 2009 Physician Fee Schedule, now held over for two more months.
As the journey towards final health care legislation continues in Congress, a temporary pay fix was signed on December 19th by President Obama, which will continue the 2009 fee schedule until February 28th.
This halted the planned 21.
29% payment cut that was scheduled to go into effect on January 1st.
There are a few changes to note.
The current conversion factor increased slightly from $36.
0666 to 36.
0846.
While the assumption would be that this would lead to a temporary nominal increase in reimbursement for the two-month period, this actually depends on your locality.
While the 2009 Fee Schedule was being held in place, planned changes to geographic practice cost indices (GPCI's) went into effect that are modified based on the area of the country in which you practice.
High-cost areas of the country now have a GPCI above the former minimum of 1.
000, while lower-cost parts of the country have fallen below 1.
000.
In all, 54 out of 89 localities are seeing a decrease in their GPCI to a level below 1.
000, so while the conversion factor is temporarily raised, most low-cost area providers will in fact see a fee decrease for the first two months of 2010.
This is expected to be corrected in the pending legislation, which would extend the GPCI minimum of 1.
000 until 2011.
This same pending legislation, which to date has been beaten and battered worse than Lenten cod, is also slated to increase the conversion factor by half of a percentage point for 2010.
With the seemingly endless bickering and posturing that has characterized the process for this particular bill, it is best to tell the reader to stay tuned for further developments as the legislation nears completion.
Knowing some of you the way I do, I gave you 8 days to sober up from your New Year's celebrations, and I bid you welcome.
For some of my more hardcore partying compatriots in the writing community who are reading this while catching up on what you've missed, I hope you had a pleasant Valentine's Day.
I myself spent the early morning hours here in Milwaukee recreating the famous road-building scene in the classic film "Cool Hand Luke", with the exceptions being that the dirt and gravel on my shovel was replaced by snow, and George Kennedy was nowhere around to help me finish shoveling.
We're now in 2010, and while we were celebrating, a few changes occurred to the proposed 2010 Physician Fee Schedule that I thought I'd share with you to bring you up to date.
Perhaps it is better to begin this explanation by reintroducing you to the 2009 Physician Fee Schedule, now held over for two more months.
As the journey towards final health care legislation continues in Congress, a temporary pay fix was signed on December 19th by President Obama, which will continue the 2009 fee schedule until February 28th.
This halted the planned 21.
29% payment cut that was scheduled to go into effect on January 1st.
There are a few changes to note.
The current conversion factor increased slightly from $36.
0666 to 36.
0846.
While the assumption would be that this would lead to a temporary nominal increase in reimbursement for the two-month period, this actually depends on your locality.
While the 2009 Fee Schedule was being held in place, planned changes to geographic practice cost indices (GPCI's) went into effect that are modified based on the area of the country in which you practice.
High-cost areas of the country now have a GPCI above the former minimum of 1.
000, while lower-cost parts of the country have fallen below 1.
000.
In all, 54 out of 89 localities are seeing a decrease in their GPCI to a level below 1.
000, so while the conversion factor is temporarily raised, most low-cost area providers will in fact see a fee decrease for the first two months of 2010.
This is expected to be corrected in the pending legislation, which would extend the GPCI minimum of 1.
000 until 2011.
This same pending legislation, which to date has been beaten and battered worse than Lenten cod, is also slated to increase the conversion factor by half of a percentage point for 2010.
With the seemingly endless bickering and posturing that has characterized the process for this particular bill, it is best to tell the reader to stay tuned for further developments as the legislation nears completion.
Source...