CMS has set the 2011 conversion factor at $33.9764. The conversion factor was initially set at $25.5217 in the 2011 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, but was later increased just before Jan. 1 as a result of congressional action in December to stave off cuts to Medicare payment rates.

You have 24 new additions to CMS’s Average Sales Price (ASP) list to start 2011. You’ll also find prices under the ASP plus 6% payment system for the first quarter of the year increased by 0.7% on average, which is the second consecutive increase (PBN 9/27/10).

Your claims won’t be rejected because of enrollment issues with an ordering/referring provider starting Jan. 3 (PBN 11/15/10). CMS has officially backed off the deadline, but has not backed away from the policy.

Do all practices in a given specialty collect around the same amount of money for physician work? This chart shows the annual amount of money collected for professional charges (excluding technical component and amounts collected from work by non-physician practitioners or NPPs).

Colonoscopies and EGD's carry a [zero-day] global period as they are deemed endoscopic procedures. My question is can the physician charge an E/M code if he schedules the procedure and sees the patient all on the same day? Or is the pre-op visit/H&P included in the procedure code?

You are now guaranteed stable Medicare reimbursement rates for one year. President Barack Obama signed the Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act of 2010 on Dec. 15. The new law will prevent cuts of roughly 30% to physician payments in 2011 (PBN 12/13/10) and will allow CMS to adjust its conversion factor up from the reduced rate of $25.5217 found in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.

You'll face some big new changes when it comes to immunization billing in 2011, thanks to new codes that will affect both your older patients on the Medicare side and your pediatric patients on the private-payer side.

Your work is cut out for you when it comes to wound care coding in 2011, thanks to CPT changes aimed at making debridement services easier to bill. There are code deletions, new add-on codes and new documentation requirements, experts say.