The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued its final rule for the 2020 Medicare physician fee schedule, effective January 1.
The final rule updates payment policies, payment rates, and other provisions for services based on comments from the public and interested organizations, including the following changes:
- Additional telehealth services
- Updated policies for payment rate calculations and misvalued codes
- Changes to evaluation and management (E/M) coding and payment following recommendations by the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) Editorial Panel and the American Medical Association RVC Update Committee
- New Medicare Part B benefit for opioid treatment programs
In an analysis of the rule, the American College of Radiology (ACR) said it was "disappointed" that CMS chose to adopt changes to the E/M coding that were recommended by the American Medical Association, which will result in "significant payment reductions" to radiology services in 2021 unless Congress acts to suspend the budget neutrality requirement.
The ACR reported that CMS estimated the new Medicare Physician Fee Schedule would have no impact on reimbursement at radiology, radiation oncology, and radiation therapy centers; a 1% decline for interventional radiology; and a 1% increase for nuclear medicine.
