CMS Releases Proposed Revisions to Physician RVUs
On May 24, 2011, CMS released a notice that sets forth proposed revisions to work relative value units (RVUs) and corresponding changes to the practice expense and malpractice RVUs affecting Medicare physician fee schedule payment for physicians' services. Under the Social Security Act, CMS must review RVUs no less often than every 5 years. Under its latest review, CMS proposes to make revisions effective for services furnished beginning January 1, 2012 in order to reflect changes in medical practice and coding that affect the relative amount of physician work required to perform each service. The review reflects services that were submitted through public comment and by the Medicare contractor medical directors, as well as a number of potentially misvalued codes identified by CMS (so-called “Harvard-valued codes” and codes with “Site-of-Service” anomalies). CMS expects the RVU revisions to change Medicare expenditures by less than $20 million (the statutory threshold that would trigger a budget neutrality adjustment). Moreover, CMS currently estimates that the proposed RVU changes will have no significant impact at the specialty level based on its most recent data. The official version of the rule is scheduled to be published on June 6, 2011. CMS will accept comments on the notice until July 25, 2011.
