Advocacy Update

2019 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule: CMS Delays Proposed Changes to E/M Payment, Advances Virtual Care

By Jacqueline M. Kocinski, MPP, and Phil Rodgers , MD FAAHPM

For many years, payment policies finalized annually by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) under the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) sparked little fanfare in the hospice and palliative care community. More recently, efforts by AAHPM and others to promote reimbursement for high-value "cognitive care" yielded changes beneficial to palliative care teams, including separate payment for advance care planning, complex chronic care management, and prolonged nonface-to-face services.