I wanted my first post of 2010 to be an uplifting, good news post. But, there isn't any good way to sugarcoat the changes to Medicare reimbursement that started with the new year.
The start of 2010 brings some changes to the Medicare Fee Schedule that will affect reimbursement received by some ambulance providers. As you may have guessed, these changes will decrease reimbursement, not increase it. If there is any good news, it is that not all of these changes will affect all providers.
It has been known for some time that the Annual Inflation Factor (AIF) for this year is 0%. This means no increase in reimbursement due to inflation.
The National Fee Schedule is now the rate for everyone. It seems that we have been implementing fee schedule for years (and we have). To soften the impact of the National fee schedule, it was phased in by blending the national rate with a decreasing percentage of a regional rate. Since 1/1/2007, the blend rate was 80% National/20% Regional. Now the blend is gone, and the regional rates are no longer considered. This change will only have a noticeable impact on those providers who were still benefiting from the regional blend.
An ambulance reimbursement relief provision that has provided a 2% increase for Urban transports and a 3% increase for rural transports has expired. The expiration of these bonus payments will affect all providers. However, there are efforts to get these increased reinstated as part of the health care reform legislation.
A relief provision that was targeted at the 'super rural' areas has also expired. This provision provided a 22.6% increase to base rate reimbursement for transports that originated in 'super rural' areas. While the expiration of this provision will not affect all providers, it will be a significant change for providers serving the 'super rural' areas.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment