Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Good news for your neurosurgery practice: Your physicians won't have to cough up overpayments from CMS' delayed implementation of the 2003 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
 
CMS had planned to require carriers to collect overpayments from physicians relating to certain claims for services provided in January and February of this year. The problem arose from the delay in the effective date of the fee schedule - which was March 1, 2003, rather than Jan. 1. Claims with dates of service in January or February were supposed to be paid at 2002 rates. But due to claims-processing limitations, if practices submitted claims after March 1, CMS paid these claims at the higher 2003 rates.
 
CMS earlier announced that it would recover so-called overpayments in a "mass adjustment" in July, and has been warning about this move for months. But the agency has had an 11th-hour change of heart. "If an overpayment exists, you will not be receiving any 'Demand' letters related to an incorrect payment based on the delay of the 2003 MPFS," CMS tells physicians. "This also means that Medicare beneficiaries will not be receiving copies of those 'Demand' letters that would have potentially caused unnecessary confusion to them."
 
To see CMS' notice on the mass adjustments, go to the World Wide Web site www.cms.hhs.gov/physicians/goodnews.pdf.
 
Note: CMS adds an important caveat to its mass adjustment notice: "You should be aware ... that if you bring to the attention of the Medicare carrier that an incorrect payment for January or February 2003 was received, the carrier will still process such an adjustment."