Medicare Fee Schedule Changes
Palmetto, California's Medicare contractor, recently posted a revised Medicare fee schedule on its website. The new fee schedule includes changes resulting from practice expense and malpractice relative value unit (RVU) corrections in the 2010 Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule and the federal health reform bills signed into law by President Obama in March.

The new fee schedule takes effect June 1 and is retroactive to January 1, 2010. However, Medicare contractors will not go back and adjust previously paid claims. Physicians who render services that are now paying at higher levels can, however, ask for a redetermination based on the change. 

Although the revisions represent a zero-percent update, most codes will see a slight decrease due to changes in practice expense and malpractice RVUs. Most medical codes will result in a decrease of less than a dollar, but surgical and imaging codes could see much larger decreases. Some codes will, however, see increases.

Additional fee schedule changes may be necessary pending the outcome of the Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) fix currently being debated in Congress.  Click here for related story.