Health Affairs August 15, 2018
As co-author of a 2011 New England Journal of Medicine Perspectivecalling for the long-overdue elimination of the documentation billing guidelines for office visits paid under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, the lead author of this post might be expected to applaud the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposal to greatly deemphasize the role of these guidelines in the proposed 2019 fee schedule rule. Regrettably, although HHS deserves credit for finally addressing this 20-year-old, festering problem, its recommended approach for diminishing the need for these intrusive guidelines would have serious negative consequences. If adopted, the proposal would move the fee schedule in the opposite direction from our broad objective of moving payment from “volume to value.”
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