Practice Management Alert

The physician community is still reeling from last year's fight to nix a cut to Medicare reimbursement, and now the threat has reared its head once again.
 
In the Federal Register Aug. 15, CMS published its draft regulation for the 2004 Physician Fee Schedule , and interested parties have until Oct. 7 to comment. The biggest news in the rule is that CMS expects to slash physician payments by 4.2 percent across the board next year.
 
And that's just on average - some services face a much bigger cut, the rule makes clear. For example, physicians who see lots of patients in nursing home or home settings could really get hit hard. Many nursing facility care codes are slated for double-digit decreases in their non-facility RVUs. The hardest hit will be 99311 (Subsequent nursing facility care), which will drop from an estimated $40.83 to $32.08. Meanwhile, two home visit codes, 99348 and 99350, will drop about 10 percent to $66.60 and $152.94 respectively.
 
The draft 2004 Physician Fee Schedule regulation is at http://cms.hhs.gov/physicians/.