Part B News | Editors' Blog

Breaking News: Giant relief bill also set to increase physicians’ 2021 fees

by: Laura Evans, CPC Dec 22, 2020

Physicians can breathe a little easier going into 2021 – Congress has erased the deep Medicare fee cuts CMS laid out in the final 2021 physician fee schedule as an offset to higher E/M pay rates.

Ignore Medicare’s total times for office E/M visits

by: Julia Kyles, CPC Dec 10, 2020

Careful readers of the final 2021 Medicare physician fee schedule noticed that the rule contains total times for codes 99202-99215. But those times don't match the time ranges for the revised E/M codes.

Final PFS: 2021 conversion factor gets 10% squeeze, E/M revisions remain on track

by: DecisionHealth Staff Dec 2, 2020

Physicians are facing a 10.2% drop in the Medicare conversion factor (CF) starting Jan. 1, as an offset to broad new increases in reimbursement rates for E/M office visits and other E/M-like services, according to the final 2021 Medicare physician fee schedule released Dec. 1.

Clean out your ears and listen up: Office visits and procedures can’t have overlapping time

by: Laura Evans, CPC Nov 20, 2020

Everyone’s favorite office procedure, cerumen removal using lavage (69209) made a cameo appearance during the E/M office visit coding presentation during the AMA’s virtual CPT RBRVS Symposium this week.

AMA pushes for a reprieve from budget neutrality, and CMS pushes back

by: Richard Scott and Laura Evans, CPC Nov 18, 2020

The 2021 fee outlook emerged as a key point of discussion at the American Medical Association's (AMA) annual conference, with officials from the AMA and CMS offering divergent signals on what the scope of payment change may look like come Jan. 1.

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