Urology Practices To Be Hard Hit

By Author: Angela Martin
Total Articles: 205
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Gear up for another nail-biting year to find out whether your Medicare payments will be slashed. The calendar year 2011 Physician Fee Schedule conversion factor is $25.5217. This amounts to a poor 30.7 percent cut as compared to the present rate of $36.8729. While Congress has provided temporary relief from these reductions every year since 2003, a long-term solution is important.


Practices continue to be in the dark about what'll transpire on January 1. A lot of people are worried about what'll happen in Congress in January regarding the conversion factor. Some newly-elected Senators and House members will be in place in 2011, and it's not clear whether the present Congress will make changes affecting 2011 pay prior to January or whether they will leave these issues for the new Congress to solve.


Apart from dealing with conversion factor fluctuations, some specialties will face additional cuts. The hardest hit practices will be those that specialize in radiology, and the cuts will most definitely have a significant impact on specialty practices that are already financially stretched. ...
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Unfortunately, urology ranks among the specialties that'll face the biggest Medicare cuts in the coming year based on changes to RVUs assigned to codes and other adjustments in certain specialties. Remember that these numbers don't include the impact of the January 2011 conversion factor changes. But minus the conversion factor cut RVU changes will still cause urology practices to see at least a 3-4 percent drop in Medicare reimbursements in the coming year.


For more updates on the Fee Schedule and how it's going to affect your urology coding, Medical Coding, sign up for an audio conference.