Dear AuntMinnie Member,
In a puzzling move, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) last week declined to follow through on a proposal that might have put the bite on physician self-referral of imaging services.
CMS last week issued its final rules for the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) and Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (HOPPS), documents that specify how much physicians and hospitals are paid for healthcare services. We're featuring an article on the new rules by staff writer Kate Madden Yee in our Imaging Center Digital Community.
Industry observers had been expecting the final rules to include several provisions CMS proposed earlier this year that would have made it harder for physicians to self-refer, such as requiring all physician groups performing imaging to become registered as independent diagnostic testing facilities (IDTFs).
But instead, CMS took a pass on its own proposal, opting for more relaxed standards that critics say do nothing to limit physician self-referral. Learn more about why the agency decided not to act by clicking here, or visit our Imaging Center Digital Community at centers.auntminnie.com.
