They're not planning to change any of the Medicare payment
localities "at this time," but Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS) officials are studying their options anyway.
Federal law requires CMS to account for differences in cost due
to geographic location in determining physician payments. There now
are 89 payment localities in the United States that have
not been revised since 1997.
CMS says it is studying
four options
[
PDF]
for revising the localities and encourages physicians and
other interested parties to submit comments to
CMS MPFS[at]cms[dot]hhs[dot]gov
until Oct. 20. "When we are ready to propose any changes to the
locality configuration, we will provide extensive opportunities for
public comment on specific proposals before implementing any
change," it said.
Action
, Sept. 2, 2008
Last Updated On
June 15, 2010
Originally Published On
March 23, 2010