Orthopedic Coding Alert

Due to the late implementation of the 2003 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, Medicare carriers overpaid some practices for January and February 2003 claims using a higher conversion factor rate, which did not actually take effect until March 1. CMS initially announced that carriers would request reimbursement from these practices by using an automatic mass adjustment. Fortunately, on June 27, CMS announced that it will not require Medicare carriers to collect such overpayments.