2010 Medicare Paycut for Physicians, Unless Congress Acts

American Medical News reports that the final 2010 Medicare physician fee schedule confirms that physicians face a 21.2% pay cut starting Jan. 1, 2010, unless Congress adopts legislation to avert it. The official figure is only slightly lower than the 21.5% reduction the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services was predicting earlier this year.

The Obama administration supports a permanent repeal of the current physician payment formula and has called on Congress to pass legislation to that effect. But CMS noted in the final rule that, without congressional action, it is required by Medicare statute to implement the across-the-board cut, which will apply to the 2010 conversion factor.

Not every physician would see their rates go down by the same amount in 2010 if Congress were to allow the cut to go through. Over the next four years, CMS will phase in refinements to practice expense relative value units based on updated data from an AMA survey. As a result, physicians in specialties traditionally considered to be primary care will see higher rates before the application of the 21.2% cut required by the pay formula, while some other specialists will see further pay reductions based on the relative value unit revisions and other adjustments.

Read the full article at American Medical News or click here:

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/11/09/gvsd1113.htm