CMS says it the goal is to support health equity while focusing on high-quality person-centered care. Increased leverage of telehealth for behavioral care, diabetes prevention and mitigation, and enhanced payment for vaccine administration were three out of many priorities cited by federal officials who announced the release of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid […]
The conversion factor per relative value unit under the 2022 fee schedule will be reduced to $33.59, down from $34.89 in 2021. KEY TAKEAWAYS CMS says that’s the result of the anticipated sunset of a temporary 3.75% payment increase in 2022, a 0% conversion update, and adjustments mandated by budget neutrality. Physicians blasted the […]
CMS has finalized the calendar year (CY) 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule to promote greater telehealth utilization, boost reimbursement rates for vaccine administration, and improve health equity, among other initiatives, the federal agency said. The final rule will implement “a series of standard technical proposals” as part of CY 2022 rate-setting, CMS said. The conversion […]
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, people often relied on telemedicine for doctor visits. Now, insurers are betting that some patients liked it enough to embrace new types of health coverage that encourages video visits — or outright insists on them. Priority Health in Michigan, for example, offers coverage requiring online visits first […]
About 41% of primary care clinicians say going back to pre-pandemic telehealth reimbursement rules would kill virtual care at their practices and exacerbate staffing issues. The survey conducted in mid-August by the Larry A. Green Center, in collaboration with the Primary Care Collaborative (PCC), found that primary care practices have come to rely on […]
In the latest Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed for the first time a set of CPT codes for remote therapeutic monitoring. These codes, according to the proposal, are intended to be used to understand the effectiveness of and the patient’s response to a prescribed therapy. In particular, […]
The organization is concerned about policies in the 2022 Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule, ranging from telehealth worries to apprehension about MIPS. The AHA agreed with certain aspects of the rule but also voiced various problems and recommendations for CMS to consider. The AHA opposed several telehealth policies that CMS included in the rule. The […]
CMS introduced the first seven MIPS value pathways and other updates to the Quality Payment Program as part of the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule. If finalized, the Quality Payment Program (QPP) will undergo significant policy changes under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) proposed rule. Most notably, the rule introduced the first seven […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has blown the doors wide open on telehealth, especially with new reimbursement parity policies. But value-based contracts can support the growing interest in remote patient monitoring and other virtual care services beyond the pandemic, according to telehealth experts at the Revenue Cycle Management Summit. “Remote patient monitoring programs are growing,” Andrew […]
After three years of policy proposals, the American Medical Association Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) panel responses, and substantial guidance from gastroenterology and other specialty societies, changes to the office/outpatient evaluation and management (E/M) codes became effective as of January 2021. Some aspects of these revisions took effect for telehealth services since spring 2020 for Medicare, […]