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Good news, bad news from CMS

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WASHINGTON — The 2003 Medicare Fee Schedule proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services predicts another significant (5%) negative physician payment update for 2003, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

The AAO notes, however, that the Medicare modernization bill recently passed by the House of Representatives provides a statutory physician update of 2% in 2003. CMS has also adopted the new productivity adjustment, which the AAO expects will improve the annual physician payment update by as much as 0.7%, increasing payments to physicians by about $1 billion.

Key ophthalmology surgical fees were improved, said William Rich, III, MD, AAO secretary for federal affairs. “We protected cataract surgery from the across-the-board cuts of 4% to 5% because of the negative update to the conversion factor,” he said.

Dr. Rich believes that with the passage of the fee fix, cataract surgery payments may increase 6% in 2003 after nearly 10 years of payment cuts to ophthalmologists.