Fisher, et al. v. Berwick, et al.

August 5, 2011 Six physicians at the Center for Primary Care in August, Georgia are suing the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The plaintiffs allege that CMS discriminates against primary care physicians in favor of specialists in formulating Medicare reimbursement rates. The key complaint is that CMS has relied on the recommendations of the American Medical Association’s Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC), to the point that the RUC has acted as an unchartered federal advisory committee. CMS has historically accepted 90% of the RUC recommendations. The . . .