Radiation Oncology Receives 7% Medicare Fee Reduction

The Medicare physician fee schedule for 2013 includes a 26.5 percent pay cut based on the sustainable growth rate formula and a 7 percent reduction for radiation oncology services, according to Oncology Practice.

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The SGR formula will be in effect Jan. 1, unless Congress halts the cut, which it has done every year since 2003.

The fee schedule also includes cuts for intensity-modulated radiation treatment and stereotactic body radiation treatment, though not as steep as the originally proposed cuts. The American Society for Radiation Oncology expressed relief with the 7 percent cuts instead of 15 percent.

The final rule also creates a new set of codes to pay physicians for care coordination in the 30 days after a patient is discharged from a hospital. Those initially proposed G codes will now be full-fledged codes in the AMA CPT code set.

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