Looming SGR Pay Cut Now At 20%; Primary Docs Get New Billing Codes

Looming SGR Pay Cut Now At 20%; Primary Docs Get New Billing Codes-insidehealthpolicy: CMS is lowering the looming Medicare pay cut for physicians from 24.4 percent to 20.1 percent, according to the 2014 final Physician Fee Schedule rule. The rule also institutes, starting in 2015, billing codes that pay primary-care doctors for managing chronically ill patients, and the regulation revalues some 200 codes. However, those revalued codes may change, and CMS decided against adjusting relative values to cap physician practice expense pay for procedures furnished in a non-facility setting at the rate for the service furnished in ambulatory surgical centers or hospital outpatient departments.