The Physician Fee Schedule Rule has been published and the news is not good.

The net result is a decrease in payments of 3.89%.   How does this break down?

First in 2021 Congress passed an act called the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 that gave an increase of 3.75% to the Physician Fee Schedule.  That act is set to expire at the end of 2021. 

Second Due to the Balanced Budget act there will be a decrease of 0.14% in the Physician Fee Schedule.

The net result is a decrease in fees of almost 4% from what we received in 2021.

The good news is that the published document is the PROPOSED Physician Fee Schedule.   All rules published start with a proposed rule.  When it is a proposed rule, the rule is open for a public comment period.   Typically, during the comment period, organizations send in comments to the government about a proposed rule and the government reads the comments and often makes changes to the final version of the rule.  Here is your opportunity to voice your opinion, and YES your voice does count.

If you wish to send in a comment here are the important details

1. To be assured consideration, comments must be received at one of the addresses provided below, no later than 5 p.m. on September 13, 2021.
2. Electronically. You may submit electronic comments on this regulation to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the “Submit a comment” instructions.
3. By regular mail. You may mail written comments to the following address ONLY:

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,

Department of Health and Human Services,

Attention: CMS-1751-P,

P.O. Box 8016,

Baltimore, MD 21244-8016.

4. By express or overnight mail. You may send written comments to the following address ONLY:

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,

Department of Health and Human Services,

Attention: CMS-1751-P,

Mail Stop C4-26-05,

7500 Security Boulevard,

Baltimore, MD 21244-1850.

It would be nice to review the proposed rule before sending in your comments, but I warn you the document is 1747 pages long.  The information on the Fee Schedule Change can be found on page 1178 or the proposed rule.   You can download he proposed rule at the following link:

https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2021-14973.pdf