Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Plus: Pay for Radiation oncology, pulmonology, and cardiology will drop even more. Get ready for another year of nail-biting to find out whether your Medicare payments will be dramatically reduced. "The calendar year 2012 Physician Fee Schedule conversion factor is $24.6712," notes the 2012 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule, printed in the Federal Register published on Nov. 1. This amounts to a dismal 27.4 percent cut compared to the current rate of $33.9764. CMS acknowledges that this massive cut may not be set in stone, stating, "While Congress has provided temporary relief from these reductions every year since 2003, a long-term solution is critical. We will continue to work with Congress to fix this untenable situation so doctors and beneficiaries no longer have to worry about the stability and adequacy of their payments from Medicare under the Physician Fee Schedule." Physician advocacy organizations were quick to decry the cuts. [...]