CMS finalizes physician fee schedule

CMS came out with their final physician fee schedule this afternoon, and yep, that whopping 21 percent cut is there.

From the CMS press release:

“The Administration tried to avert the pending fee schedule cut in the FY 2010 budget proposal that it submitted to Congress, and remains committed to repealing the SGR,” said Jonathan Blum, director of the CMS Center for Medicare Management. “In the meantime, CMS is finalizing its proposal to remove physician-administered drugs from the definition of ‘physicians’ services’ for purposes of computing the physician fee schedule update. While this decision will not affect payments for services during CY 2010, CMS projects it will have a positive effect on future payment updates.”

So far, Congress’ attempts to fix the SGR payment formula have fizzled and talk of a long-term solution doesn’t seem to be gaining much traction in Washington. It remains to be see what Congress will do about the 2010 cut in payments, or if a health reform bill with touch it.

We'll have more here on the final rule and the other provisions in there next week.