The physician fee schedule update for CY08 will be -10.1 percent, announced the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in a final rule published in the Nov. 27 Federal Register. (This is the official release of the final rule, originally announced on Nov. 1.)
Among other issues, the final rule with comment period also discusses refinements to resource-based practice expense relative value units (RVUs); geographic practice cost indices changes; malpractice RVUs; clinical lab fee schedule issues; payment for renal dialysis services; expiration of the physician scarcity area bonus payment; physician self-referral issues; a durable medical equipment update; a Medicare economic index data change; revisions to the ambulance fee schedule; the ambulance inflation factor for CY08; and amending the e-prescribing exemption for computer-generated facsimile transmissions. CMS has also finalized the CY07 interim RVUs and issued interim RVUs for new and revised procedure codes for CY08.
The agency also announced that the initial estimate for the sustainable growth rate for CY08 is -0.1 percent, and the conversion factor for CY08 is $34.0682. Download the final rule.
