2012 Medicare physician payment rate update
5 January 2012
Although the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a two-month extension on 27.4 percent Medicare pay cut to the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula that was originally scheduled for Jan. 1, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently confirmed that all the other changes that were included in the Medicare physician payment final rule for 2012 will still take effect as scheduled.
The American Medical Association (AMA) provides a detailed
memo that describes that final rule and its numerous changes to the relative value units, geographic practice cost indexes, ePrescribing and quality reporting programs and procedure payment rules. Other changes that are also effective as of Jan. 1, 2012 include a 0.18% increase in the conversion factor for budget neutrality, from $33.9764 in 2011 to $34.0376 in 2012.
In the
Federal Register, CMS published a
correction notice to the 2012 final rule that modifies the relative values for a number of services. CMS also posted a
revised relative value file reflecting both the corrections and the legislation that stopped the 27.4 percent cut.
Additional resources