Cardiology Coding Alert

Plus: Cardiology RVUs could see 2 percent drop.Another season of nail-biting has passed, waiting to find out whether your Medicare payments will be slashed.As most practices know, last June Congress voted not only to stave off a 21 percent cut to your Medicare pay, but also to increase your revenue by 2.2 percent. However, that vote only kept the cuts at bay through November 30. Effective December 1, your Medicare pay was set to drop by over 23 percent, unless Congress intervened to reverse the cuts.The Senate and House passed, and the President signed into law, a measure to delay Medicare's 23 percent cut to the fee schedule conversion factor due to take effect Dec. 1. The delay pushed the possible cut to 2011 for payments with dates of service after Dec. 31, 2010. Then, as of publication time, Congress passed (and the President is expected to sign) a [...]