The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a proposed rule for physician fee schedule (PFS) payments and other Medicare Part B issues, effective Jan. 1, 2023. The rule proposes to reduce the PFS conversion factor by $1.53 (4.6%) to $33.08 in calendar year (CY) 2023, compared to $34.61 in CY 2022. The proposed rule also includes changes in policies for telehealth, opioid use disorder, dental services, and the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP).
The CMS proposes to:
- Reduce the conversion factor to $33.08, which reflects a required statutory update of 0% and the expiration of the one-year Congress-approved 3% increase in PFS payments for CY 2022.
- Delay indefinitely the payment penalty period of the Appropriate Use Criteria. The CMS is unable to forecast when the payment penalty phase will begin again.
- Expand the list of telehealth category 3 codes and extend coverage through Dec. 31, 2023.
- Delay for one year (until Jan. 1, 2024) implementation of its policy to define the substantive portion of a split (or shared) visit based on the amount of time spent by the billing practitioner.
- Make several changes to increase participation in the MSSP, including implementing longer glide paths to downside risk for accountable care organizations (ACOs) and modifying benchmarking methodology to ensure ACOs do not have to compete against their own best performance.
- Expand behavioral health access by permitting licensed professional counselors, marriage and family therapists, and other types of practitioners to provide services, thereby creating an exception to the direct supervision requirement for “incident to” billing.
Members are encouraged to submit comments to the CMS by Sept. 7. Questions and feedback should be directed to Renée Smiddy at the MHA.