CMS Publishes 2009 Proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule

June 30, 2008 – The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published its Proposed 2009 Medicare Rule on June 30. The proposed rule includes a projected update to the fee schedule conversion factor of negative 5.4 percent under a formula specified in the Medicare law. In addition, the Rule addresses potentially misvalued services, physician payment locality options, payment for follow-up inpatient telehealth consultations, proposals to improve quality of care – including the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, changes to physician self-referral, anti-markup provisions, and enrollment and billing rules.