Medicare Proposes One Flat Rate For Clinic Visits

The federal Medicare program has proposed paying one flat rate for outpatient hospital clinic visits, rather than the current five payment rates that vary with the patient’s severity. To implement the new system, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) plans to replace the five current clinic visit codes for both new and established patients with a single code describing all outpatient clinic visits, except emergency department visits. The current system of codes is intended to distinguish differences in the physician workload due to patient severity. The proposed single code is intended to reduce administrative burden and . . .