Effective March 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services implemented a 1.6 percent increase in the Medicare conversion factor. Make note of the following details that will affect your reimbursement.
• You have until April 14 to make your 2003 Medicare participation decisions, and you can reverse any participation decision made earlier. If you're satisfied with your participation status, no action is required. (Go to http://www.aafp.org/mcareoptions.xml to review your Medicare participation options.)
• Because of a glitch in the Medicare claims processing software, claims filed on or after March 1 for services provided in January and February will be incorrectly paid at the 2003 rate. For such services, if the 2003 rate is greater than the 2002 rate, physicians can avoid a subsequent carrier request for a refund by using the 2002 Medicare allowance as the actual charge on the claim.
The final rule for the 2003 Medicare physician fee schedule can be downloaded as a PDF file at http://cms.hhs.gov/regulations/pfs/fr2003qa.pdf. A Q-and-A document on the fee schedule is at http://cms.hhs.gov/regulations/pfs/cms1204f2.pdf. Check out http://www.aafp.org/pdf.xml if you need help accessing PDF files.
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Copyright © 2003 by
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