Part B Insider (Multispecialty) Coding Alert

You'll be "held accountable" for the quality of care you provide--if the influential Medicare Payment Advisory Commission gets its way. MedPAC's report to Congress, released June 15, also calls for:

•  improving coordination between different providers and health care settings, especially for chronically ill patients;

• more efforts by Medicare to keep up with improvements in technology; and

•  more accurate data collection for physicians' practice expense relative value units (PE-RVUs).

The message from MedPAC in its report was clear and somewhat ominous: If the federal government doesn't control Medicare spending, the program won't be sustainable. To read MedPAC's report, go to www.medpac.gov.