January 2007

Medicare publishes 2007 fee schedule

Medicare has published its 2007 fee schedule, available online at www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/pfslookup.

The Web site is designed to provide information on services covered by the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS). It provides more than 10,000 physician services, the associated relative value units, a fee schedule status indicator, and various payment policy indicators needed for payment adjustment.

The Medicare physician fee schedule pricing amounts are adjusted to reflect the variation in practice costs from area to area. A geographic practice cost index (GPCI) has been established for every Medicare payment locality for each of the three components of a procedure’s relative value unit.

The GPCIs are applied in the calculation of a fee schedule payment amount by multiplying the RVU for each component times the GPCI for that component.

This site is designed to take the user through the selection steps prior to the display of the information. It allows the user to:

• Search pricing amounts, various payment policy indicators, RVUs, and GPCIs by a single procedure code, a range, and a list of procedure codes; or

• Search for the nation, a specific carrier, or a specific carrier locality. Each page has associated Help/Hint available to complete your selections.

Source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, www.cms.hhs.gov

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