On December 1, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) final rule, along with the CMS fact sheet. The final MPFS confirmed changes for office-based Evaluation and Management (E/M) services will go into effect as planned, as well as implementing the previously finalized add-on code (formerly known as GPC1X) on Friday, January 1, 2021. This add-on code will account for the complexity and additional resources involved with services provided during primary care visits.
To help family physicians understand the changes, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFPO has created a summary of the MPFS. The AAFP’s comments on the proposed final rule can be found in a September 28 letter to CMS Administrator Seema Verma. More information about the final rule was featured in In The Trenches and the Advocacy Insider.
Your voice is still needed to protect primary care payment increases in the MPFS – speak out today to tell Congress that CMS must move forward with planned E/M changes on Friday, January 1, and urge them to pass legislation to provide relief from budget neutrality for all physicians.