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CMS reduces 2006 physician payment rate

Physician Practice Advisor, November 9, 2005

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced a final rule that will reduce physician payment rates per service by 4.4% in 2006. CMS must implement the reduction by law.

"The existing law calls for a decrease in payment rates for physicians in response to continued rapid increases in use of services and spending growth, and Medicare does not have the authority to change this," CMS Administrator Mark B. McClellan, MD, PhD, said in a press release.

In addition to the payment rate reduction, the final rule

• provides for supplemental payments to federally qualified health centers that contract with Medicare Advantage plans
• extends the glaucoma screening benefit to include Hispanic-Americans age 65 and older
• includes diagnostic and the therapeutic nuclear medicine services and supplies under the definition of "designated health services" that are subject to the physician self-referral ban

For more information from CMS, click here.

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