Physicians could be getting more money for evaluation and management (E/M) visits under a new proposal from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
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The increased funding is part of a proposed rule that provides the annual update to the Medicare physician fee schedule for 2020, as well as updates for the Quality Payment Program. The proposed rule was posted online July 29 and is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Aug. 14. Comments are due to CMS on Sept. 27.
CMS officials are seeking to increase Medicare payments to physicians starting in 2021 for E/M visits, based on recommendations from the American Medical Association’s Relative Value Scale Update Committee (AMA-RUC).
With this update, the agency will be “rewarding the time that doctors spend with patients,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said during a July 29 teleconference with reporters.
A fact sheet highlighting changes in the proposed physician fee schedule update for 2020 notes that the agency also is looking to add a new CPT code for prolonged services time, also to commence in 2021.
“The RUC recommendations reflect a robust survey approach by the AMA, including surveying over 50 specialty types [that] demonstrate that office/outpatient E/M visits are generally more complex and require additional resources for most clinicians,” the fact sheet states.
Physicians would also get paid for care management services related to patients with a single chronic condition, rather than only patients with multiple chronic conditions, as current regulations state. There’s also a proposal to increase payments for transitional care management services provided after a Medicare patient is discharged from an inpatient stay or certain outpatient stays.
The proposed update to the physician fee schedule also puts into regulation a new benefit for opioid use disorder treatment that was authorized under the SUPPORT (Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities) Act. To meet the requirements of the law, CMS has included in the proposal definitions for opioid treatment programs and opioid use disorder treatment services; enrollment policies for programs; bundled payment rates for treatment programs, with adjusters for geography and annual updates; flexibility for telehealth services; and zero beneficiary copays for a time-limited duration.
The American Medical Association praised proposed changes to documentation requirements that are included in the rule.
Patrice Harris, MD, the AMA president, said in a statement that the proposed rule “will streamline reporting requirements, reduce note bloat, improve workflow, and contribute to a better environment for health care professionals and their Medicare patients.”
The proposal also includes a modification to the physician supervision requirements for physician assistants that would give PAs “greater flexibility to practice more broadly in the current health system in accordance with state law and state scope of practice,” the fact sheet notes.
Overall, Dr. Harris appeared to have a good first impression of the proposed update, noting that the AMA is “pleased to see important policy revisions that will bring us closer to a more patient-centered health care system that promotes the key principles of affordability, accessibility, quality, and innovation.”