Despite congressional action calling for a zero percent update to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for this year, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services calculations for the 2011 conversion factor represent cuts of about 7.8 percent, according to the Idaho Medical Association.

The conversion factor cuts are to help keep relative value unit changes budget-neutral, the association said in a post last week.

The revised conversion factor update, released last week, is $33.9764, below the fiscal year 2010 conversion factor of $36.8729. The revised factor takes effect Jan. 1, and must be implemented by Jan. 14, CMS said.
The full update can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/25w2wly

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