We just wanted to share with you this interesting item from our newsletter archives. A news brief in the Jan. 22, 1990, issue of our sister publication the Medicare Compliance Alert (now, Medical Practice Compliance Alert) stated:
Medicare payments to physicians can't increase more than 9.1% in [fiscal year] 1990, if practitioners want to avoid an inflation adjustment penalty in FY 1992. The initial "performance standard," announced by HHS in the Dec. 29 Federal Register, is part of the new physician payment reform law.
Could you imagine facing a 9.1% increase instead of now staring at a 21% decrease in Medicare payment rates! We'd all be in a much better mood.
According to a 1989 issue, physicians needed to meet "volume performance standard (VPS), under which MDs are expected to hold down growth in projected Medicare outlays, or face future cuts in inflation adjustments for MD payments. Rep. Pete Stark, a leader of payment overhaul, said the reform measures 'represent the first major change in how physicians are paid since they stopped accepting chickens and pigs in payments.'"