News: Physician fee schedule proposed rule would reduce payments for most surgical specialties

CMS has released the calendar year (CY) 2021 Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule and opened a comment period up until October 5, 2020. The proposed rule, which would take effect on January 1, 2021, would reduce payments for nearly all surgical specialties, reported HealthLeaders Media. This would include up to 9% for cardiac surgery, 8% for thoracic surgery, 7% for vascular surgery, 7% for neurosurgery, and 6% for ophthalmology.

CMS said the budget neutrality law mandates an adjustment to account for changes in relative value units. The 2021 conversation factor is $32.26, a decrease of $3.83 from the 2020’s conversion factor of $36.09. CMS said, however, that the 2021 proposed rule provides roughly $84 billion for outpatient services, reported HealthLeaders Media.

The America College of Surgeons and the Surgical Care Coalition urged Congress to step in and halt the cuts by waiving Medicare’s budget neutral mandates, noting that during a pandemic is not the time for cuts to any area of healthcare.

The American Medical Association was more receptive to the proposed rule, noting the expansion of telehealth visits, paperwork reductions, coding revisions, and improved payments for office-based evaluation and management services. Like the other organizations, however, the American Medical Association also said that budget neutral provisions will weak havoc for some healthcare providers.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in HealthLeaders Media. The (CY) 2021 Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule can be found here.