Proposed changes to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) for 2009 were published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in the Federal Register on July 7, 2008.  The MPFS, which establishes the Medicare payment rates for the nearly one million physicians and nonphysician practitioners who bill Medicare for the services they provide, is updated annually.  CMS is required by federal law to reduce the 2009 Physician Fee Schedule by 5.4 percent.  Total spending under the 2009 MPFS is projected at $54 billion, a 5 percent decrease from the $57 billion projected for 2008.

In addition to proposed payment changes, the 2009 MPFS includes numerous proposals for policy changes intended to improve the quality of care to Medicare beneficiaries.  CMS has proposed other changes ranging from enrollment and billing rules to the establishment of alternative reporting criteria with respect to the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative.  A Fact Sheet highlighting key issues in the 2009 MPFS is available on the CMS web site at this link.

Summaries of three significant areas in which CMS has proposed significant rule changes are:

Additional information on these topics is available at the above links.

The proposed 2009 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule can be found at this link.  CMS has requested comments on these proposals and will consider comments submitted until Aug. 29, 2008. Waller Lansden is soliciting comments on the proposed rule, and we will provide these comments to CMS.

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