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Come 2016, be prepared to adjust your billing protocol for transitional care management (TCM) services, reflected in codes 99495 and 99496.

The latest Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule doesn't do much for telehealth -- five new codes allowed, several more proposed services rejected, and no change in the onerous "originating site" rule that keeps telehealth from taking off as a Medicare service.

But the nation's leading telehealth advocacy group isn't complaining.

Practices have a new revenue opportunity in 2016 for providing advance care planning (ACP) services, as finalized in the final 2016 Medicare physician fee schedule released Oct. 30.

Photo by Grant HuangIn one week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers dubbed the “Super Committee” must release a plan that cuts federal spending by $1.2 trillion over the next decade. If they don’t come up with something, or if Congress fails to approve the plan they release, you can expect automatic across-the-board federal cuts, including a 2% cut to your Medicare physician pay starting in 2013. This amount would be on top of the 27.4% pay cut set to hit Jan. 1, 2012.

Photo by Grant HuangYour Medicare payments will fall by 27.4% in 2012, under a conversion factor of $24.6712, which is slightly less than the 29.5% cut projected by CMS earlier under the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula. The difference is due to Medicare costs growing slightly slower than expected, the agency says. Of course, this 27.4% cut isn’t the final word, because Congress has always stepped in at the last minute to avert SGR cuts.

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