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Medicare physician fee schedule to cut cataract surgery payment 13.6%
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CHICAGO — The 2013 Medicare physician fee schedule includes a 13.6% reduction in reimbursement for cataract surgery, an ophthalmology advocate said here.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a final rule on the 2013 physician payment schedule on Nov. 1, Michael X. Repka, MD, American Academy of Ophthalmology medical director for governmental affairs, said during a news conference at the joint meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology.
The reduction is largely driven by a decrease in the average length of a cataract procedure from 35 minutes to 21 minutes.
The cataract surgery payment cut is not likely to be repeated for at least 5 years, Repka said, and may be offset by bonuses for electronic prescribing and participation in the Physician Quality Reporting System.
“Ophthalmologists have been very successful in participating in e-prescribing and the Physician Quality Reporting System. In fact, it almost counterbalances the effect of the testing reduction. … It is a way for practitioners who are participating in those programs to offset those losses,” he said.
Physicians face a 26.5% cut in Medicare reimbursement stemming from the sustainable growth rate (SGR) on Jan. 1, unless Congress intervenes. AAO and other medical societies have called for the SGR to be repealed or altered in order to bring payments into parity with increasing costs.
“That’s one the House of Medicine and Congress are committed to solving, at least in the short term. We don’t like short-term fixes of SGR, but if that’s what it takes, we’re certainly not going to decline it, at least not at this time,” Repka said.
Disclosure: No products or companies are mentioned that would require financial disclosure.