U S Department of Health and Human Services www.hhs.gov

Physician Center

Spotlights
  • 2009 Part B Drug CAP Announcement  (posted September 10, 2008) 
  • Medicare is statutorily required to adjust payments for physician fee schedule services to account for differences in costs due to geographic location. There are currently 89 different localities which have not been revised since 1997.  In the CY 2009 Physician Fee Schedule notice of proposed rulemaking which was released on June 30, 2008, we indicated that we would post on the CMS website a preliminary study of several options for revising the payment localities. The report entitled: "Review of Alternative GPCI Payment Locality Structures," which was produced by Acumen, LLC under contract to CMS.

    Our study of possible alternative payment locality configurations is in the early stages of development.  At this time we are not proposing to make any changes to the payment localities.  We encourage interested parties to submit comments on the options presented in the report as well as suggestions for other options.  These comments will be considered in the development of possible future notice and comment rulemaking. When we are ready to propose any changes to the locality configuration, we will provide extensive opportunities for public comment (for example, a town hall meeting or open door forum) on specific proposals before implementing any change.

    Electronic comments on the interim report may be submitted to CMS_MPFS@cms.hhs.gov until October 20, 2008.

  • Physician Self-Referral and Hospital Ownership Disclosure Provisions in the IPPS FY 2009 Final Rule  (posted August 5, 2008)
  • New 2008 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Payment Rates Effective for Dates of Service July 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008  (posted July 16, 2008)
  • CMS-1403-P - Revisions to Payment Policies Under the Physician Fee Schedule and Other Revisions to Part B for CY 2009.  On display at the Federal Register June 30, 2008 with a publication date of July 7, 2008. CMS-1403-CN was published on August 1, 2008.

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