Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Fiscal outlook brings worries. Like everyone else, you're probably watching Washington, D.C. to see how lawmakers resolve the so-called "fiscal cliff" budget problems, which include the two percent across-the-board sequestration cuts set to hit Medicare providers' payment rates in early 2013. Physicians, including pathologists, will be seeking funding from Congress, since they face a newly finalized 2013 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule that includes a 26.5 percent cut. "In the absence of Congressional action, an overall reduction of 26.5 percent will be imposed ... on or after January 1, 2013," says the fee schedule published in the Nov. 16 Federal Register. How health care matters get handled in Congress may change, now that a veteran politician with a healthcare focus has been defeated. Eighty-year-old House Ways and Means health Subcommittee chair Pete Stark (D-Calif.) was defeated by a 31-year-old challenger from his own party. Stark, for whom the "Stark Law" is [...]