FixHealthCarePolicy

Medicare Seeks to Cut Physician Payments for Services in 2010

The federal agency in charge of Medicare and Medicaid is seeking to slash service reimbursements to doctors by 21.5 percent starting January 1, 2010, under a proposed rule that was noted in Modern Healthcare magazine.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) also proposed removing physician-administered drugs from the formula used to calculate Medicare’s physician fee schedule, the article noted. That means “physicians will experience fewer years of negative updates if it is implemented,” Modern Healthcare says. The proposed changes would affect more than 1 million doctors and non-physician practitioners who treat Medicare patients and are paid under the fee schedule.

Tags: cuts, Medicare, physician payments