Skip Navigation LinksHome | Editors' Blog
 
The Part B fee cuts are coming. After CMS proposed an across-the-board 2.8% reduction to the Medicare Part B conversion factor in July, the agency today confirmed that the rate-setting reduction is on track to kick in on Jan. 1, 2025.
 
Within the 3,088 page final 2025 Medicare physician fee schedule that was released this afternoon, CMS also finalized a diverse range of new service, such as caregiver training and a host of mental health-adjacent codes, largely punted on telehealth reform, confirmed the requirement of surgical transfer of care modifiers, and tweaked its quality-reporting programs.
 
You can say goodbye to the elevated payment rates that have buoyed Part B professional fees for most of 2024. Should CMS' proposals in the latest physician fee schedule hold, providers and medical groups will see a nearly 3% reduction to the Medicare Part B conversion factor in 2025.
 
The agency also announced plans to launch a slate of advanced care management services, set a deadline for big changes in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System, teased 2025-effective codes, floated a revamp of surgical modifier rules, and signaled the end of many entrenched telehealth flexibilities, among other policy changes and revisions, according to the proposed 2025 Medicare physician fee schedule, and its 2,248 pages of Medicare policy, released today.
 
 
The contents of Medicare’s proposed physician fee schedule are typically a mystery until CMS publishes the rule on the Federal Register. But this year is different.
 
 
One question has come up about social determinants of health (SDOH) assessments with the Medicare annual wellness visit: If the provider taking the assessment finds the patient has social issues that should be addressed – e.g. housing status, transportation to health care appointments – is the provider obliged to address them, or simply document them? An expert responds.
 
 
The conversion factor cuts that CMS floated earlier in the year are now confirmed – and heightened. Part B providers will have to prepare for a net 3.4% payment decrease across services in 2024, according to the final 2024 Medicare physician fee schedule released today.
 
Also, you will find new services moving to active status, such as caregiver training and principal illness navigation, a one-year telehealth parity patch, key value-based care updates and the launch of the much anticipated add-on complexity code G2211.
 

Login

User Name:
Password:
Welcome to the new Part B News Online. If you are a returning user having trouble logging in, please click here.
Blog Archive
Back to top